RUNNING BEFORE A BROKEN SEA OR .SURF. 279 



the only chance of safety in a small boat ; but if the shore be 

 flat, and the broken water extend to a great distance from it, 

 this will often be impossible. The following general rules for 

 rowing to seaward may therefore be relied on : 



i . If sufficient command can be kept over a boat by the 

 skill of those on board her, avoid or * dodge ' the sea, if possible, 

 so as not to meet it at the moment of its breaking or curling over. 



2. Against a head gale and heavy surf, get all possible speed on 

 a boat on the approach of every sea which cannot be avoided. 



3. If more speed can be given to a boat than is sufficient to 

 prevent her being carried back by a surf, her way may be 

 checked on its approach, which will give her an easier passage 

 over it. 



II. On Running before a Broken Se.a, or Surf, to the Shore. 

 The one great danger, when running before a broken sea, is 

 that of broaching-to. To that peculiar effect of the sea, so 

 frequently destructive of human life, the utmost attention must 

 be directed. The cause of a boat's broaching-to, when running 

 before a broken sea or surf is, that her own motion being in the 

 same direction as that of the sea, whether it be given by the 

 force of oars or sails, or by the force of the sea itself, she 

 opposes no resistance to it, but is carried before it. Thus, if a 

 boat be running with her bow to the shore and her stern to the 

 sea, the first effect of a surf or roller overtaking her is to throw 

 up the stern, and as a consequence to depress the bow ; if she 

 then has sufficient inertia (which will be proportional to weight) 

 to allow the sea to pass her, she will in succession pass through 

 the descending, the horizontal, and the ascending positions, as 

 the crest of the wave passes successively her stern, her midships, 

 and her bow, in the reverse order in which the same positions 

 occur to a boat propelled to seaward against a surf. This may 

 be defined as the safe mode of running before a broken sea. 

 But if a boat, on being overtaken by a heavy surf, has not 

 sufficient inertia to allow it to pass her, the first of the three 

 positions above enumerated alone occurs her stern is raised 

 high in the air, and the wave carries the boat before it, on its 

 front, or unsafe side, sometimes with frightful velocity, the bow 

 all the time deeply immersed in the hollow of the sea, where 



