Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 17, 2025
Her fate was sealed; to leeward were the cliffs of the South Foreland, and on our lee-bow lay the shelving beach of Deal. "This will be awkward landing, shipmates," said Bramble; "and yet we must try it. I'll fill my pipe hope it won't be the last."
Before twelve o'clock, the rocky point which we so much dreaded was in sight, broad on the lee-bow; and if the low sandy coast appeared terrible, how much more did this, even at a distance: the black masses of rock, covered with foam, which each minute dashed up in the air, higher than our lower mast-heads. The captain eyed it for some minutes in silence, as if in calculation.
The Willi-Waw was tearing through the water with a bone in her teeth, for the breath of the passing squall was still strong. The blacks were swinging up the big mainsail, which had been lowered on the run when the puff was at its height. Jacobsen, superintending the operation, ordered them to throw the halyards down on deck and stand by, then went for'ard on the lee-bow and joined Griffiths.
I were once in th' ship John of Hull, and we were in good green water, and were keen after whales; and ne'er thought harm of a great gray iceberg as were on our lee-bow, a mile or so off; it looked as if it had been there from the days of Adam, and were likely to see th' last man out, and it ne'er a bit bigger nor smaller in all them thousands and thousands o' years.
With a night full fifteen hours long before us, and knowing that we were fast driving on the land, anxiety and dread were on every face, and every mind felt the terrors of uncertainty and suspense. At length, about twelve o'clock, the dreadful truth was disclosed to us! Judge of my sensation when I saw the frowning rocks of Arran, scarcely half a mile distant, on our lee-bow.
December 25th saw Land again; but could not get near enough to see whether it was inhabited; in truth we were too much in a hurry to think of making Discoveries; for at four in the Afternoon we sighted a Sail under our Lee-bow, gave chase, and got ground of her apace till Night came on.
They were up in a trice and tailed on with me, asking no questions, till we had the boom nearly amidships. I was about to speak when Wilkinson cried out, "I smell ice." He sniffed a moment: "Yes, there's an island aboard. Anybody see it?" "Ay, dere it am, sure enough!" cried Cromwell. "Dere on de lee-bow see it, sah? See it, Billy?" Yes, I saw it plain enough when I knew where to look for it.
I was telling him that I had heard of a ship striking a berg, and of several of her people being saved on it, while she went down, when he startled me by singing out with a voice of thunder, "Ice ahead!" At the same moment old Knowles cried out, "Ice on the weather-bow!" and immediately I had to echo the shout with "Ice on the lee-bow!" and another cried, "Ice abeam!"
The mate told us two or three more stories, and a lot of us were gathered round him, listening eagerly, for there is nothing Jack likes so much as a good yarn, when all of a sudden, the man at the mast-head sang out that a large sperm whale was spouting away two points off the lee-bow. Of course we were at our posts in a moment. "There she blows! there she breaches!" sung the look-out.
I was looking out, when I saw through the mist what I took to be a sail. There was something strange about her rig I could not make it out. Accordingly, I reported it to the captain, who came on deck. He called Peter to him. "She looks to me like a vessel in distress, with most of her spars and upper-rigging carried away," he observed. She was about six miles off, on the lee-bow.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking