I never made the man out satisfactorily afterwards. It is
possible that he was one of the few who scarcely showed on deck, till we
were in sight of land; but rather, I believe, like other visions and
voices of the night, he changed past recognition under the garish light
of day.
Then come the noisy nuisances, extending through all the diapason of
sound. One--the most annoying--to which the ear never becomes callous by
use, is the incessant crash, not only alongside, but overhead. At
intervals--more frequent, of course, after our bulwarks were swept
away--the green water came tumbling on board by tons; and, being unable
to escape quickly enough by the after-scuppers, surged backwards and
forwards with every roll of the vessel, as if it meant to keep you down
and bury you forever. Lying in my berth, I could feel the heavy seas
smite the strong ship one cruel blow after another on her bows or beam,
till at last she would seem to stop altogether, and, dropping her head,
like a glutton in the P. R., would take her punishment sullenly, without
an effort at rising or resistance. Nevertheless, I stand by "The Asia,"
as a right good boat for rough weather, though she is not a flyer, and
sometimes could hardly do more than hold her own. Eighty-one knots in
the twenty-four hours was all the encouragement the log could give one
day.
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