Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/497

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gave a lurch to leeward, and then righted so suddenly that the little topsail which had done us such good service went into ribbons, the top-mast cracked off at the cap, and crash went the jib-boom right away afterward. "Hard a-lee!" was rather a melancholy sort of order to give under the circumstances, and, as was to be expected, when the helm went down we were thrown into the trough of the next sea, where we were caught amidships by the ugliest wave that I ever happened to look upon, and down it thundered upon us, staving in the bulwarks, sweeping the decks from stem to stern, and carrying every thing over-*board, our water-casks included. The schooner shivered all over as if every rib in her little body was broken, and for a moment I felt sure that she was knocked over on her beam ends; but the craft seemed to possess more lives than a cat, and, righting in an instant, shook herself free of the water, took the next wave on the bow, rose to it nobly, and then shot squarely into the wind's eye. "Bravely done, little lady!" was McCormick's caressing approval of her good behavior.

We lay hove to for three days, at the end of which time we found ourselves drifted from our course two hundred miles. Meanwhile, there had been a good deal of alarm caused by the loss of our water-casks. We had an extra cask or so in the hold, but these could not be got up without removing the main-*hatch, an effort not to be thought of, as the decks were flooded and the vessel would be swamped; so I at once set myself to work to remedy the evil, and succeeded perfectly. With a tea-kettle for a retort and a barrel for a condenser, I managed to distil water enough for the entire ship's company; and, in less