OCEAN FISH AND OCEAN FISHING 6i 



not a vestige of it to be seen. The davits had 

 been snapped clean off, and the whole thing had 

 disappeared, as well as many feet of thick bul- 

 wark ; also a small deck-house which we male 

 passengers had appropriated for a card and 

 smoking-room, and had vacated only ten minutes 

 before its destruction. 



The ship had broached to, i.e., had been allowed 

 for a second to present her side to the great seas, 

 and, but for the skipper's promptitude, would have 

 foundered from the weight of the successive waves 

 that poured upon her deck. 



Finding it was time to run no more risk, the 

 ship was slowly brought head to wind, a ticklish 

 operation, and there she snugly lay, shipping very 

 little water, and with only a rag of a fore stay-sail 

 set to help to keep her steadily to windward. 



Night set in, and with it a terrific electric 

 disturbance. Incessant lightning played upon the 

 deck, while the thunder drowned the hurly-burly 

 of the storm. Weird St. Elmo lights, large blue 

 globes of electricity, appeared on the three royal 

 mast-heads ' and on the iron-bound yardarms, 

 looking ghastly in the pitchy darkness. 



In the after-hold was a consignment of gun- 

 powder — about ten tons — and our suspense may 

 be imagined, for we knew that should the lightning 



