248 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
rum, and tinned stores, they brought us off a boatload 
of seals (twenty), and we took our departure back to 
the Kuril Islands. Here, whilst beating through the 
straits between Onekotan and Paramushir at night, 
we nearly lost our vessel. The Paramushir coast 
being dangerous on account of many off-lying reefs 
and rocks which the charts did not show, and which 
were known to myself only of those on board, I 
had been on deck until midnight, and the watch 
was then taken by the mate. The vessel was head¬ 
ing south by east, a course which would have taken 
her out into the Pacific, miles clear of everything, 
and away from Cape Henry on Paramushir, which 
is low and difficult to see at night, and off which 
there are dangerous reefs. I told the mate to keep 
the vessel on the same course until daybreak, warning 
him of the dangers off Cape Henry. About 2 a.m. 
I was awakened by the vessel bumping heavily, 
and, running on deck, found we were on the reef. On 
my asking the mate how he got there, he said the 
captain had been on deck and ordered him to put 
the schooner on the other tack, as he knew she must 
be far enough through the strait to clear the cape. 
The tides are sometimes irregular on these coasts, 
and fortunately it was so on this occasion, the 
water falling for twelve hours, so that at low-water 
the schooner was high and dry. This extraordinary 
falling of the tide was a godsend to us, for it enabled 
us to get all our ballast, water, and heavier stuff, 
out and on to the beach without having to put it 
into boats. It was not high-tide again until about 
six o’clock the following evening, when it rose 
abnormally high. The vessel floating, we set sail 
and bumped her over the flat reef into deep water, 
