by Daniel Defoe
"how do you do after it? I warrantyou were frightened, wa'n't you, last night, when it blew but a cap-fullof wind?"--"A cap-full do you call it?" said I; "it was a terriblestorm."--"A storm, you fool you," replied he, "do you call that astorm? why it was nothing at all; give us but a good ship and sea-room,and we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that; but you're but afresh-water sailor. Bob, Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we'llforget all that; do you see what charming weather it is now?" To makeshort this sad part of my story, we went the old way of all sailors; thepunch was made, and I was made drunk with it; and in that one night'swickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my pastconduct, and all my resolutions for my future. In a word, as the sea wasreturned to its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by theabatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over, myfears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by the sea beingforgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I entirelyforgot the vows and promises that I made in my distress. I found,indeed, some intervals of reflection; and serious thoughts did, as itwere, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, androused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying myselfto drinking and company, soon mastered the return of those fits, for soI called them; and I had in five or six days got as complete a victoryover conscience, as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubledwith it, could desire: but I was to have another trial for it still; andProvidence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to leave meentirely without excuse: for if I would not take this for a deliverance,the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened wretchamong us would confess both the danger and the mercy of.
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth Roads; the windhaving been contrary, and the weather calm, we had made but little waysince the storm. Here we were obliged to come to anchor, and here welay, the wind continuing contrary, viz. at south-west, for seven oreight days, during which tune a great many ships from Newcastle cameinto the same roads, as the common harbour where the ships might waitfor a wind for the River.
We had not, however, rid here so long, but should have tided it up theriver, but that the wind blew too fresh; and, after we had lain four orfive days, blew very hard. However, the roads being reckoned as good asa harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground tackle very strong, ourmen were unconcerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, butspent the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the sea; but theeighth day in the morning the wind increased, and we had all hands atwork to strike our top-masts, and make every thing snug and close, thatthe ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon the sea went very highindeed, and our ship rode forecastle in, shipped several seas, and wethought once or twice our anchor had come home; upon which our masterordered out the sheet anchor; so that we rode with two anchors a-head,and the cables veered out to the better end.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now I began to seeterror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves. Themaster, though vigilant in the business of preserving the ship, yet ashe went in and out of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly say tohimself several times, "Lord, be merciful to us! we shall be all lost;we shall be all undone!" and the like. During these first hurries I wasstupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the steerage, and cannotdescribe my temper: I could ill reassume the first penitence which I hadso apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself against. I thought thebitterness of death had been past, and that this would be nothing likethe first: but when the master himself came by me, as I said just now,and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted: I got up butof my cabin, and looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw; thesea went mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes:when I could look about, I could see nothing but distress around us: twoships that rid near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board,being deep laden; and our men cried out, that a ship which rid about amile a-head of us was foundered. Two more ships being driven from theiranchors, were run out of the roads to sea, at all adventures, and thatwith not a mast standing. The light ships-fared the best, as not so muchlabouring in the sea; but two or three of them drove, and came close byus, running away with only their spritsail out before the wind.
Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship tolet them cut away the fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to do: butthe boatswain protesting to him, that if he did not, the ship wouldfounder, he consented; and when they had cut away the-fore-mast, themain-mast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obligedto cut her away also, and make a clear deck.
Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who wasbut a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but alittle. But if I can express at this distance the thoughts that I hadabout me at that time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon accountof my former convictions, and the having returned from them to theresolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself;and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me in such a condition,that I can by no words describe it. But the worst was not come yet; thestorm continued with such fury, that the seamen themselves acknowledgedthey had never known a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deepladen, and wallowed in the sea, that the seamen every now and then criedout, she would founder. It was my advantage in one respect, that I didnot know what they meant by _founder_, till I inquired. However, thestorm was so violent, that I saw what is not often seen, the master, theboatswain, and some others more sensible than the rest, at theirprayers, and expecting every moment when the ship would go to thebottom. In the middle of the night, and under all the rest of ourdistresses, one of the men that had been down on purpose to see, criedout, we had sprung a leak; another said, there was four foot water inthe hold. Then all hands were called to the pump. At that very word myheart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell backwards upon the sideof my bed where I sat, into the cabin. However, the men roused me, andtold me, that I, that was able to do nothing before, was as well able topump as another; at which I stirred up, and went to the pump and workedvery heartily. While this was doing, the master seeing some lightcolliers, who, not able to ride out the storm, were obliged to slip andrun away to sea, and would not come near us, ordered us to fire a gun asa signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what that meant, was sosurprised, that I thought the ship had broke, or some dreadful thing hadhappened. In a word, I was so surprised, that I fell down in a swoon. Asthis was a time when every body had his own life to think of, nobodyminded me, or what was become of me; but another man stept up to thepump, and thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I hadbeen dead; and it was a great while before I came to myself.
We worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent thatthe ship would founder; and though the storm began to abate a little,yet as it was not possible she could swim till we might run into a port,so the master continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who hadrid it out just a-head of us, ventured a boat out to help us. It waswith the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was impossible forus to get on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship's side, till atlast the men rowing very heartily, and venturing their lives to saveours, our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, andthen veered it out a great length, which they, after great labour andhazard, took hold of, and we hauled them close under our stern, and gotall into their boat. It was to no purpose for them or us, after we werein the boat, to think of reaching to their own ship; so all agreed tolet her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as much as wecould; and our master promised them, that if the boat was staved uponshore he would make it good to their master: so partly rowing and partlydriving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping towards the shorealmost as far as Winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but wesaw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant bya ship foundering i
n the sea. I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes tolook up when the seamen told me she was sinking; for from that momentthey rather put me into the boat, than that I might be said to go in; myheart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright, partly withhorror of mind, and the thoughts of what was yet before me.
While we were in this condition, the men yet labouring at the oar tobring the boat near the shore, we could see (when, our boat mounting thewaves, we were able to see the shore) a great many people running alongthe strand to assist us when we should come near; but we made but slowway towards the shore; nor were we able to reach it, till, being pastthe light-house at Winterton, the shore falls off to the westward,towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence of thewind. Here we got in, and, though not without much difficulty, got allsafe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth,