9212 THE OCEAN. 
dripping wet, and shining as bright and clean asa 
new coin, from the constant friction of the Ocean 
during the previous rapid passage across the Trade- 
winds. 
“But all this picturesque admiration changes to 
alarm when ships come so close as to risk a contact ; 
for these motions, which appear so slow and gentle 
to the eye, are irresistible in their force; and as the 
chances are against the two vessels moving exactly in 
the same direction at the same moment, they must 
speedily grind or tear one another to pieces. Sup- 
posing them to come in contact side by side, the first 
roll would probably tear away the fore and main 
channels of both ships; the next roll, by interlacing 
the lower yards, and entangling the spars of one ship 
with the shrouds and backstays of the other, would, 
in all likelihood, bring down all three masts of both 
ships, not piecemeal, as the poet hath it, but in one 
furious crash. Beneath the ruins of the spars, the 
coils of rigging, and the enormous folds of canvas, 
might lie crushed many of the best hands, who, from 
being always the foremost to spring forward in such 
seasons of danger, are surest to be sacrificed. After 
this first catastrophe, the ships would probably drift 
away from one another for a little while, only to 
tumble together again and again, till they had ground 
one another to the water’s edge, and one, or both of 
them, would fill, and go down. In such encounters 
it is impossible to stop the mischief; and oak and 
iron break and crumble in pieces like sealing-wax 
and pie-crust. Many instances of such accidents are 
on record, but I never witnessed one. 
