“I tried to laugh, but fear held me, a fear which was cowardly and horrid and base and treacherous like the tide. All the danger which we ran appeared to me at once. I wanted to shriek: ‘Help!’ But to whom?
“The two younger girls were clinging to their father, who looked in consternation at the measureless sea which hedged us round about.
“The night fell as swiftly as the ocean rose—a lowering, wet, icy night.
“I said:
“‘There’s nothing to do but to stay on the ship:
“The Englishman answered:
“‘Oh, yes!’
“And we waited there a quarter of an hour, half an hour, indeed I don’t know how long, watching that creeping water growing deeper as it swirled around us, as though it were playing on the beach, which it had regained.
“One of the young girls was cold, and we went below to shelter ourselves from the light but freezing wind that made our skins tingle.
“I leaned over the hatchway. The ship was full of water. So we had to cower against the stern planking, which shielded us a little.