Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/97

 caught the sound of breakers. The lookout gave the alarm a moment afterward.

"Where away?"

"I can't make out, sir."

The sound came from an object which was evidently near at hand, but no one could tell where. A few moments more, and the loom of an iceberg appeared in our course. There was no time for reflection, and it was too late for action. To haul the schooner by the wind was to insure our plunging broadside upon it; and so indistinct was the object that we knew not which way to steer. We could not see either end of it or its top,—nothing but a white shimmer and a line of angry surf.

I have always found inaction to be a safe course when one does not know what to do; and in the present case that course saved us. Had I obeyed my first impulse, and put the helm up, we should have gone straight to ruin; as it was, we slipped past the ugly monster, barely escaping a collision which, had it occurred, would have been instantly fatal to the vessel, and of course to every one on board. The fore-yard actually grazed its side, and the surf was thrown back upon us from the white wall. In a few moments the berg was swallowed up in the gloom from which it had so suddenly emerged.

"A close shave, that!" said cool-headed Dodge.

"Ver—very close," answered Starr, much as if he had just received the first shock of a shower-*bath.

The old cook was called out of his galley to lend a hand, and in the midst of the excitement he was heard to growl out, "I don't see how I's to get de gentlemens' dinner ready if I's to be called out of my galley