William Hope Hodgson

“ Even as I pointed my camera over the rail, and opened the shutter, my brain was working with a preternatural avidity, drinking in a thousand uncanny sounds and echoes that seemed to come upon me from every quarter, brutally distinct against the background of the cyclone's receding howling. There were the harsh, bursting, frightening, intermittent noises of the seas, and, mingling with these, the shrill, hissing scream of the foam; the dismal sounds, that suggested dankness, of water swirling over our decks, and the faintly-heard creaking of the gear and shattered spars ”

“ Imagine a noise as loud as the loudest thunder you have ever heard; then imagine this noise to last hour after hour, without intermission, and to have in it a hideously threatening hoarse note, and, blending with this, a constant yelling scream that rises at times to such a pitch that the very ear-drums seem to experience pain, and then, perhaps, you will be able to comprehend merely the amount of sound that has to be endured during the passage of one of these storms. And then, the force of the wind! ”

“ This photograph, as I discovered when I came to develop the negative, has not, I regret to say, taken regard of a strange, indefinable dull-red glare that lit up the horizon at the same time; but, as it is, it remains to me a treasured record of a form of electrical phenomenon but seldom seen, even by those whose good, or ill, fortune has allowed them to come face to face with a cyclonic storm. Before leaving this incident I would once more impress upon the reader that this strange lightning was not descending from the atmosphere, but rising from the sea. ”

“ At eight o'clock, when again I came on deck, I found that the sea had begun to rise somewhat, but that otherwise the weather was much as it had been when I left the decks, save that the sun was hidden by a heavy squall to windward which was coming down upon us. Some fifteen minutes later it struck the ship, making the foam fly and carrying away the main topsail sheet. Immediately upon this the heavy iron ring in the clew of the sail began to thrash and beat about, as the sail flapped in the wind, striking great blows against the steel yard ”

“ To give some idea of the wind's power, as shown in a larger way, one of the lifeboats on the after skids was up-ended against the mizzen-mast, and there crushed flat by the wind, as though a monstrous invisible hand had pinched it. Does this help you a little to gain an idea of wind-force never met with in a thousand ordinary lives? ”

“ He laughed, a queer, little, bitter laugh.
'You may as well do that as anything else,' he said. 'We can't do anything to help ourselves. If we're not pooped before the centre reaches us, IT'll finish us in quick time!'
Then that cheerful officer of mine turned slowly, and made his way on deck, leaving me, as may be imagined, particularly exhilarated by his assurances. Presently I followed, and, having barred the companion-way behind me, struggled forward to the break of the poop, clutching blindly at any holdfast in the darkness. ”

“ Apart from the wind, it must be borne in mind that the gigantic seas pitch the ship about in a most abominable manner. Indeed, I have seen the stern of a ship hove up to such a height that I could see the seas ahead over the foretopsail yards, and when I explain that these will be something like seventy to eighty feet above the deck, you may be able to imagine what manner of sea is to be met with in a great cyclonic storm. Regarding this matter of the size and ferocity of the seas, I possess a photograph that was taken about ten o'clock at night. ”

“ This bit of a breeze that we're having now'—and he gestured to windward with his elbow—'is only fluff—nothing more than the outer fringe of the advancing cyclone! Keep your eye lifting to the North-East, and keep your ears open. ”

“ When the boy came down to wake me, he told me that it had been lightning during the past watch. Even as he spoke, a bright, bluish glare lit up the porthole; but there was no succeeding thunder. I sprang hastily from my bunk and dressed; then, seizing my camera, ran out on deck. I opened the shutter, and the next instant—flash! a great stream of electricity sprang out of the zenith.
Directly afterwards the Mate called to me from the break of the poop to know whether I had managed to secure that one. ”

“ Have you ever faced a wind so powerful that it splayed your lips apart, whether you would or not, laying your teeth bare to view? This is only a little thing; but it may help you to conceive something of the strength of a wind that will play such antics with one's mouth. ”

“ It was later that some of us, headed by the Mate, who had relinquished his place at the wheel to one of the men, ventured down on to the maindeck with axes and knives to clear away the wreckage of some of the spars which we had lost in the vortex. Many a grim risk we ran in that hour; but we cleared the wreck, and, after that, scrambled back, dripping, to the poop, where the steward, looking woefully white and scared, served out rum to us from a wooden deck-bucket. ”

“ By mid-day the following seas had risen to a truly formidable height, and two hands were working half naked at the wheel; for any carelessness in steering would most certainly have had serious consequences. In the course of the afternoon the Mate and I went down into the saloon to get something to eat, and here, out of the deafening roar of the wind, I managed to get a short chat with my senior officer. ”

“ Greyson,' he remarked, and glanced to windward. 'I think we'd better have the fore and main upper topsails off her.' Scarcely had he given the order before the Mate was down on the maindeck, shouting: 'Fore and main topsail hal'yards, lower away! Man clewlines and spillinglines!' So eager was he to have the sail off her. By the time that the upper topsails were furled I noted that the red glare had gone out of the greater part of the sky to windward, and a stiffish-looking squall was bearing down upon us. ”

“ We took him forrard to the fo'cas'le, and there, with rough surgery, made him as comfortable as we could, after which we left him but half conscious in his bunk. After that, several wet, weary hours were spent in rigging rough preventer stays. Then the rest of us, men as well as officers, made our way aft to the poop, there to wait, desperately ready to cope with any emergency where our poor futile human strength might aid to our salvation. ”

“ That the Mate was uneasy, I very soon perceived; for presently, a little while after he had relieved the Second Mate, he ceased his pacing of the poop-deck and came and leant over the rail alongside of me.
'I wish to goodness the Old Man would have her shortened right down to lower topsails,' he said, a moment later, in a low voice. 'There's some rotten, dirty weather knocking around. ”

“ Vessels have lived through worse than this!'
'Have they?' he said, very quietly. 'Not many vessels have lived through worse than what's to come. I suppose you know we expect to meet the centre in less than an hour?'
'Well,' I replied, 'anyway, I shall go on taking photos. ”

“ The Mate stood upright and faced round at me.
'Do you know,' he said, 'only once before in my life have I heard anything like that, and that was before the cyclone in which the “Lancing” and the “Eurasian” were lost in the Indian Ocean.'
'Do you think then there's really any danger of a cyclone now?' I asked him, with something of a little thrill of excitement.
'I think——' he began to reply, and then stopped and swore suddenly. 'Look!' he said, in a loud voice .... 'Look! “Stalk” lightning, as I'm a living man!' And he pointed to the North-East. 'Photograph that while you've got the chance ”