Then there was a vivid flash of lightning, which almost blinded the eyes of those below. Another and another followed quickly, and were succeeded by louder thunder than most people ever listen to.
Then the wind!
The shifting, ever shifting wind! For the Walrus was in a little cyclone. Certainly not little as regarded force, but still in extent small enough to be called a whirlwind. Yet such whirlwinds as these are strong enough to sink any ship that ever sailed if not most carefully handled.
There was another circular squall after this, then a third and fourth, and lo! the steady gale came on in earnest, blowing terrifically from the N.N.W.
Now God save the good ship in the darkness of such an awful night as this!
For the wind brought with it its own waves, its own cold spray, its own wild showers of driving rain and sleet and hail combined. It brought something worse—it brought streams of small ice-blocks, and streams of deep snowy slush, passing through which the ship was strangely steady, because never a green sea rolled on board.
It is just on such a night as this long and terrible one that, with the horizon a mere background of blackness to the dimly lighted bulwarks, a wind that shrieks and howls like wild wolves, a wind that even head down one cannot face, but must creep side first against, clutching at rope or stay, and gasping as if engulphed in the dark cold water just beyond; it is on just such a night as this, I say, that the mariner in these far Southern seas, having taken in every bit of canvas he can spare, and done his best for his good ship from bowsprit to glimmering binnacle, must place his trust in Providence, feeling that he is in the hands of Him who can hold the ocean in His palm, and bring him safely through the danger.
The captain himself did not come below until the beginning of the middle watch. He was wet and shiny in his oilskins and sou’wester.
Ingomar had turned in.
The boys had not undressed, but had lain down to talk fearfully, just in front of the stove, with the dogs their only companions.