This was the musgo, so much dreaded in these regions.
But nobody thought even now that the Boo-boo-boo was a doomed ship.
Read on, and you shall learn the terrible truth.
CHAPTER VI
THE LAST OF THE BRAVE BARQUE “BOO-BOO-BOO”
All that day the musgo lasted. The night closed in early. It closed in so pitchy dark and gloomy, that even Captain D’Acre himself was fain to confess he had never seen anything to compare with it.
It lacked to some extent, however, the strange mystery associated with the deep silence of the black nights they had experienced in the straits. It was not silent to-night, for the head wind continued to blow, and great seas, houses high, rolled in from the west, making the motion of the vessel when tacking very disagreeable.
It might have been about four bells in the morning watch when a wild shout arose from the men, who, more for custom’s sake than any use they could be, were stationed at the bows to look out.
“Keep her away, keep her away, for God’s sake.”
“Port your helm—hard a port!”
Even against the blackness of the night, they had seen a monstrous shape, dark as Erebus, bearing down upon them.