ON THE OCEAN WAVE 73 



room between us and the beach to get under way under 

 sail, we had to wait all through the night, expecting 

 at any moment to find ourselves in the great rollers 

 breaking a few yards astern, in which the ship could 

 not have lived for five minutes. However, at the 

 supreme moment a strong and unexpected current swept 

 the vessel broadside on to the wind, thus relieving the 

 strain on the cables, and in this position we hung on 

 until the gale went down next evening. The coast was 

 strewn with wrecks ; in Beyrut alone thirteen steamers 

 had gone ashore, with small craft in great numbers ; 

 houses had been unroofed, quays swept away, and a 

 great number of lives lost. But in the midst of all 

 this a very comical incident was being enacted, showing 

 a phenomenally Oriental trust in Kismet and ignorance 

 of sea things in general. A large merchant steamer, 

 with several hundred Hadjis bound for Mecca, some to 

 disembark at Jaffa, others going on to the Red Sea, 

 went ashore on a reef off the Lazarette, where, break- 

 ing clean in two amidships, she lay, forming a com- 

 plete breakwater between herself and the land. Strange 

 to say, every living soul on board was landed in safety, 

 including the harem of a wealthy Mohammedan. But 

 at dawn lamentation arose among these ladies ; their 

 lord was missing, and, as he had not found them, he 

 must be drowned. A friend of mine who witnessed 

 their misery described it as intense. Sitting in a ring 

 on the beach, their light clothing drenched through, 

 regardless of the liberties the gale was taking with 

 their yashmaks, they wept piteously the live-long day, 

 refusing to be comforted. Towards evening", the gale 

 having abated, men put off to the wreck to begin salvage 

 of luggage and cargo, and on going below into the 





