The Man Who Laughs


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proportion as the vessel, stowing every stitch of canvas, became more  
helpless, the havoc of both winds and waves increased. The seas ran  
mountains high. The hurricane, like an executioner hastening to his  
victim, began to dismember the craft. There came, in the twinkling of an  
eye, a dreadful crash: the top-sails were blown from the bolt-ropes, the  
chess-trees were hewn asunder, the deck was swept clear, the shrouds  
were carried away, the mast went by the board, all the lumber of the  
wreck was flying in shivers. The main shrouds gave out although they  
were turned in, and stoppered to four fathoms.  
The magnetic currents common to snowstorms hastened the destruction of  
the rigging. It broke as much from the effect of effluvium as the  
violence of the wind. Most of the chain gear, fouled in the blocks,  
ceased to work. Forward the bows, aft the quarters, quivered under the  
terrific shocks. One wave washed overboard the compass and its binnacle.  
A second carried away the boat, which, like a box slung under a  
carriage, had been, in accordance with the quaint Asturian custom,  
lashed to the bowsprit. A third breaker wrenched off the spritsail yard.  
A fourth swept away the figurehead and signal light. The rudder only was  
left.  
To replace the ship's bow lantern they set fire to, and suspended at the  
stem, a large block of wood covered with oakum and tar.  
The mast, broken in two, all bristling with quivering splinters, ropes,  
blocks, and yards, cumbered the deck. In falling it had stove in a plank  
of the starboard gunwale. The skipper, still firm at the helm,  
164  


Page
162 163 164 165 166

Quick Jump
1 236 472 708 944