Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/258

 250 God's pleasure. Half an hour after one, the wind blowing most dreadfully, and the night dark as it possibly could be the sea looked like a fire, and foamed upon our deck ready to tear us in pieces. One wave came on board which tore away our bowsprit close to the foot of the fore-mast, and the shock was so terrible that we thought the ship was stove in pieces. What a terrible cry the people gave, expecting to go down every minute; but it was God's will that nothing was broke but the bowsprit, which was striking, at every sea, violently against the ship's head. Two of our best sailors went up the fore-mast, to cut away the fore top-mast and the ropes that held the bowsprit. In the mean time we shipped another sea, which carried away the fore-mast, close by the board, and one of the men that was in the round top was carried with it into the sea; the other man had his body bruised between the mast and the side of the ship, but not unto death, God be praised. He that fell in the sea, a rope had him by the leg, so that he fell into the sea, but got no farther hurt than that the rope hurt his leg. He got in safe, but had drank so much salt water, and worked himself so, that he was not able to stir. By the time these two were well in the steerage, another comes in that had almost cut off his left hand, as he was cutting the ropes to let the masts go clear. These three men were disabled, the best men that we had. What can be imagined more terrible than to see the head of the ship all under water, and the sea foaming amongst us upon the deck, and the men that remained almost disheartened, and those poor men that were disabled, grieving that they could not help themselves, and encouraging the rest to disengage the ship from the foremast and bowsprit, which were a thumping the ship to that degree, that we expected every minute the