THE GALE AGAIN INCREASES 



especially the sooty species, the death of which, on 

 Shelvoche's voyage, inspired Coleridge's memorable 

 " Rival." I noticed one, flying low between the two ships, 

 strike its wings against the wire tow-line, which had sud- 

 denly emerged from the waves owing to the lift of the 

 Koonyas stern upon a sea. The weather became fairly 

 moderate during the night and remained so next morning, 

 with the wind in the north-west. After the second day out 

 we had shifted the dogs from the forecastle head to the 

 fore bridge, and one of these in its struggles to get down 

 on to the main deck, strangled itself before we knew that 

 it was in trouble. 



There was constant rain during the morning of Janu- 

 ary 8, but it did not beat the sea down much, and during 

 the evening, with the wind shifting to the south-south- 

 west, the gale increased again. It was so bad, owing 

 to the confused sea, that we had to signal the Koonya 

 to heave to. We did this with the sea on our starboard 

 quarter. Suddenly one enormous wave rushed at us, and 

 it appeared as though nothing could prevent our decks 

 being swept, but the ship rose to it, and missed the greater 

 part, though to us it seemed as if the full weight of 

 water had come on board. We clung tightly to the poop 

 rails, and as soon as the water had passed over us we 

 wiped the salt from our eyes and surveyed the scene. The 

 sea had smashed in part of the starboard bulwarks and 

 destroyed a small house on the upper deck, pieces of this 

 house and the bulwarks floating out to the leeward; 

 the port washport was torn from its hinges, so that 

 water now surged on board and swept away at its own 

 sweet will, and the stout wooden rails of the poop deck, 

 to which we had been clinging, were cracked and displaced, 

 but no vital damage was done. The look of disgust 

 on the faces of the dripping pony watch-keepers, as they 

 emerged from the water-logged " Cavalry Club," was 



53 



