The tragedy of the seas; or, Sorrow on the ocean, lake, and river, from shipwreck, plague, fire and famine .. . hich roused himto further exertion would seal the fate of almost any otherhuman being. A sudden, short, crackling peal of thunderburst in stunning loudness just over his head, and the forkedand flashing lightning, at brief intervals, threw its vivid firesaround him. This, too, in its turn, passed away, and leftthe wave once more calm and unruffled ; the moon, nearlyfull, again threw a more brilliant light upon the bosom ofthe sea, which the storm had gone over without waking fromits
The tragedy of the seas; or, Sorrow on the ocean, lake, and river, from shipwreck, plague, fire and famine .. . hich roused himto further exertion would seal the fate of almost any otherhuman being. A sudden, short, crackling peal of thunderburst in stunning loudness just over his head, and the forkedand flashing lightning, at brief intervals, threw its vivid firesaround him. This, too, in its turn, passed away, and leftthe wave once more calm and unruffled ; the moon, nearlyfull, again threw a more brilliant light upon the bosom ofthe sea, which the storm had gone over without waking fromits slumbers. His next effort was to free himself from hisheavy laced boots, which greatly encumbered him, and inwhich he succeeded, by the aid of his knife. He now sawLowestoff High Lighthouse, and could occasionally discernthe tops of the cliffs beyond Gorlestone, on the Suffolkcoast. The swell of the sea drove him over the Cross SandRidge, and he then got sight of a buoy, which, although ittold him his exact position, as he says, took him rather aback,as he had hoped he was nearer the shore. It proved to be. The Chequered Buoy of St. Nicholas Gait. the chequered buoy of St. Nicholas Gatt, off Yarmouth, andopposite his own door, but distant from the land four now again he held counsel with himself, and the ener- ANNOYED BY GULLS. 55 gles of his mind seem almost superhuman ; he had been fivehours in the water, and here was something to hold on by ;he could even have got upon the buoy, and some vesselmight come near to pick him up, and the question was,Could he yet hold out four miles ? But, as he said, Iknew the night air would soon finish me, and, had I staidbut a few minutes upon it, and then altered my mind, howdid I know that my limbs would again resume their oflice ? He found the tide, to use a sea term, v^^as broke; it did notrun so strong; so he abandoned the buoy, and steered forthe land, toward which, with the wind from the eastward,he found he was fast approach
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, bookidtra, booksubjectshipwrecks
