VOYAGE TO ALGERIA. 145 



by timing the pull to the lurching of the ship, the 

 mastery of the rudder was obtained. I had previously 

 gone on deck. Round the saloon-door were a few 

 members of the eclipse party, who seemed in no mood 

 for scientific observation. Nor did I; but I wished 

 to see the storm. I climbed the steps to the poop, 

 exchanged a word with Captain Toynbee, the only 

 member of the party to be seen on the poop, and by 

 his direction made towards a cleat not far from the 

 wheel.* Round it I coiled my arms. With the excep- 

 tion of the men at the wheel, who stood as silent as 

 corpses, I was alone. 



I had seen grandeur elsewhere, but this was a new 

 form of grandeur to me. The ' Urgent ' is long and 

 narrow, and during our expedition she lacked the 

 steadying influence of sufficient ballast. She was for 

 a time practically rudderless, and lay in the trough of 

 the sea. I could see the long ridges, with some hun- 

 dreds of feet between their crests, rolling upon the ship 

 perfectly parallel to her sides. As they approached, 

 they so grew upon the eye as to render the expression 

 ' mountains high' intelligible. At all events, there 

 was no mistaking their mechanical might, as they took 

 the ship upon their shoulders, and swung her like a 

 pendulum. The deck sloped sometimes at an angle 

 which I estimated at over forty-five degrees; wanting 

 my previous Alpine practice, I should have felt less 

 confidence in my grip of the cleat. Here and there the 

 long rollers were tossed by interference into heaps of 

 greater height. The wind caught their crests, and scat- 

 tered them over the sea, the whole surface of which was 

 seething white. The aspect of the clouds was a fit ac- 

 companiment to the fury of the ocean. The moon was 



* The cleat is a T-shaped mass of metal employed for the 



fastening of ropes. 



