CHAPTER VI

OFF THE HORN 177

A big Beam Sea--Rolling both Rails Under--Port Watch washed away from the Fore-braces--The Deck-bear--Dollops--Blood-stirring Work--Main-deck under Water--Half-deck Water-logged--In our Watch Below--Waking Mac--At the Lee Wheel--Cape Horn Greybeards--Dodging the Seas--Don nearly Drowned in his Lamp-locker--No Fresh Water--Standing by--Higgins in the Lee Scuppers--Sunday Breakfast--Snugging Down--Turning up Gear--Overboard--A Narrow Escape--An Unlucky Fall--Don Loses his False Teeth aloft--Mountainous Seas--Pooped--“Sail ho!”--The Music of the Gale--Chantying in Difficulties--A Huge Sea falls Aboard--Retrieving the Lamps--All Hands on Deck--Terrific Work--The _Royalshire_ on her Beam Ends--Hove-to--A Bad Middle Watch--Make Sail Again--Chantying--Outward Bounders--Cape Stiff--Old Man’s Yarns--Foot-gear.