United States or Burkina Faso ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In a flash the frail craft was caught in the conflicting currents, it careened and capsized, and the two men were battling for life in the whirlpool. Sandy was so intent on escape that he had gone some distance down stream before realizing he was no longer pursued. Suddenly an agonizing cry was borne on the midnight air: "Help! Help! I'm drownin'!"
As he knelt down to pull out the spile, the sloop which had been brought to the wind, was struck on her broadside by a heavy sea, which careened her to her gunnel: the lashings of the weather cask gave way, and it flew across the deck, jamming the unfortunate Thompson, who knelt against the one to leeward, and then bounding overboard.
Still, no attempt was made to quit the vessel. Huddled together, like a flock of sheep, with the wild waves breaking over them, there they all remained, both European and African; and as the heavy blows of the seas upon the sides of the vessel careened and shook her, they were seen to cling, in every direction, with no distinction between the captured and their oppressors.
They tilted alarmingly as one wheel would sink into a deep hole, till the wheel on the other side would find a chasm just as deep, and the hood careened in that direction.
"Fire! fire!" for the great cloud of steam always rising was swept suddenly towards the starboard side, and the vessel slowly careened over in the same direction. "Burnt through, and sinking," I groaned to myself, and then I felt stunned, for Bob yelled out "Run to the wheel, Barney, lad. Keep her before the wind."
He had doubtless been enveloped in the rug which had fallen from the vehicle as it first careened in the road, and which now lay among the wayside weeds.
The barque's whole frame jarred, her canvas flapped violently, and she careened perceptibly under the terrific concussion; a dead silence seemed suddenly to have fallen upon the scene of strife, and then came the splash, splash of the falling fragments into the water around, accompanied by the heavy thud of others descending upon the barque's deck; the water seethed and leaped madly for a few seconds on the spot where the schooner had a minute before been floating, then subsided once more into the long, steady, regular run and heave of the sea, and all was over.
Lord Hastings threw the wheel over with such violence that the motorboat careened desperately and all but capsized. Frank and Jack saved themselves from being thrown overboard by a quick grasp at the rail, to which they clung with all their might. And then, before Lord Hastings could flash the searchlight across the water, had such been his intention, a blinding glare lighted up The Hawk.
"Hard a-port! flatten in forward! brail up the trysail, my men! Be smart!" cried Kloots, as from the wind's chopping round to the northward and westward, the ship was taken aback, and careened low before it. The rain now came down in torrents, and it was so dark that it was with difficulty they could perceive each other on the deck.
I lost my ship in a tornado, but soon got another. "Many more evil deeds we did that would make me weary with the telling. We feared neither God nor man. "At last, after ten years or more of butchery, the nations sent many frigates in chase of us. I fled to one of the islands and careened my ship.
Word Of The Day