RUNNING THE GAUNTLET. 
157 
in a confused mass under and about the launch. All 
along our weather bulwark it broke also, from the very 
quarter to the distant stem, pouring in over the rail like 
a young Niagara, loosening spars from the chains, and 
twisting off the wing of the crow-like eagle that had for 
years adorned (?) our bow. It was a fearful shock, and 
we feared for the ship after it. What would have been 
our fate had it struck us fair on the beam ? At the same 
time, it was productive of a good result ; for, as her stern 
settled down as its body passed from under us, we were 
urged forward with a velocity which, combined with the 
action of the propeller, threw us before both wind and 
sea and told us that the danger of the trough was passed. 
We actually astonished the barnacles and rudder-fish by 
flying before the gale at the rate of eleven knots the 
hour; and, even after disconnecting the propeller, we 
found her speed but slightly reduced, so heavy was the 
gale and sea that drove us ahead. 
“And thus we ran the gauntlet of those rugged capes, 
through that dark night, that blinding rain, that shriek- 
ing hurricane, and befoi'e those angry seas that growled 
and broke and rose again under our flying stern. The 
night seemed longer, and darkei', and more dismal, than 
any night I had ever passed before; but daylight came at 
last, and with it the conviction of safety. At noon it was 
clear weather once more, and we got observations that 
fixed our position on the chart. Then we drew a straight 
line due north from it; and it was frightful to see how 
closely we had shaved the left cape, — so closely, that bad 
steering alone might have cast us upon its hopeless rocks, 
and then ” 
