At midnight, however, Tom and I were
awakened by a knock at our cabin door, and the gruff voice of Powell,
saying: 'The barometer's going down very fast, please, sir, and it's
lightning awful in the sou'-west. There's a heavy storm coming up.' We
were soon on deck, where we found all hands busily engaged in
preparing for the tempest. Around us a splendid sight presented
itself. On one side a heavy bank of black clouds could be seen rapidly
approaching, while the rest of the heavens were brilliantly
illuminated by forked and sheet lightning, the thunder meanwhile
rolling and rattling without intermission. An ominous calm followed,
during which the men had barely time to lower all the sails on deck,
without waiting to stow them, the foresail and jib only being left
standing, when the squall struck us, not very severely, but with a
blast as hot as that from a furnace. We thought worse was coming, and
continued our preparations; but the storm passed rapidly away to
windward, and was succeeded by torrents of rain, so that it was
evident we could only have had quite the tail of it.
_Saturday, September 30th_.--The morning broke bright and clear, and
was followed by a calm, bright, sunny day, of which I availed myself
to take some photographs of the captain and crew of the 'Monkshaven.
Pages:
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174