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patch of foam appeared among the smaller bits of white riding the
surface of the sea. Thomas twisted back and shouted to the deck below,
Ho, rocks ahead! Rocks ahead!
The danger must have been spotted from the bows for there was
a flurry of shouted orders, but they were not intelligible over the howl
of the wind. The barque was answering the helm, and he could see
they were veering to the leeward of the rock or reef hidden under that
whitened sea. It looked as if she would make it. Yes, he thought, they
would ease past!
The hull rose on the next swell. As she dropped forward into the
trough, the yard jerked up and back, and he doubled forward over it.
Instantly, he rebounded. The boom was ripped from his grasp, and he
was flipped from the footrope, tumbling aft from the yard.
Oh, let there be water below! he begged as he plunged. The air
rushed past his ears as he continued to turn head over foot. There
was no up or down, and he could see nothing. It occurred to him that
he might have already struck on the deck or the rail. Was that instant
passed? Was this death: blackness, limbo, no heaven, no hell?
A stinging shock hit his body. He had slammed into the water. A
sensation of heat covered his entire back from the impact, and cold
sea swirled around his face. He felt the water going up his nose and
heard the gurgling of it in his ears. Without thinking, he began to
swim, but something was around his wrists like string or rope that
fouled his efforts to swim. Thomas found that his worn and patched
shirt had split up the back and washed around, entangling his arms.
Fiercely, he ripped it off his wrists. Freed of the rags, he tried to pull
his way to the surface. Then it flashed in his mind that he might be
beneath the hull or that some current was holding him down.
He reached out, feeling for the side of the Dove. Nothing, in any
direction. Though he swept his arms through the water, he found
MOTOO EETEE 45
not a rope or a plank. Without some clue, he did not know if he was
facing the surface or the bottom of the sea. He was suspended in black-
ness, and pawing his way through the water was tiring him quickly.
Then he tried lying still, hoping that he would rise to the surface,
though his lungs burned and he ached to take a breath.
Suddenly, he could hear the wind again. His head was above water.
Air spewed from his mouth, and he gasped for his next breath. He
whipped his head from side to side to clear the hair and water from
his eyes. He saw only waves until he turned about, and there was the
Dove, forty feet away, down by the stern and wallowing in the swells.
Waves struck her far side and rolled across her deck and cascaded
over the starboard rail. Amidships, the boats, freed from their gripes,
had been swept against the mainmast shrouds and the rail, and
remained there capsized. Above the hull, the maintopmast had fallen
in a tangle of rigging against the fore-topmast, and the angle between
the foremast and the jib-boom appeared too narrow. Even if the Dove
were got off the rock and did not sink, she would be a hulk that could
only drift with the wind to the shore of the island. Too much of her
rigging had parted and was hopelessly fouled.
Thomas worked his trousers off and started swimming toward
the bow where some of the crew were gathering. Two men had gone
aft to free the trapped boats and were struggling to right one when a
wave spilled over the far side and pinned them against the rail. It
drained away, and they turned to the boats again but were there only
a few seconds when an even larger rush of water came at them.
One man was carried off the barque, but the other managed to stay
aboard by clinging to a shroud. Thomas watched the man in the
water. His dark head showed sharply against the foaming sea as he
moved closer.
She s split! the man shouted. It was Harrison struggling toward
him.
The boats? Thomas called back.
Stove . . . all! the carpenter cried out.
46 MOTOO EETEE
A large swell lifted the barque a little and forced the stern to the
south. There was a grinding sound that was felt as much as heard.
The whole vessel had a loose movement fore and aft.
She s broken! Swim for shore! Harrison yelled and started for
the island.
Thomas watched the carpenter swim to the south, then turned
back to the barque. Each wave rolled farther forward covering more
and more of the deck. The sea now completely concealed the helm
and the waves were washing as high as the deadeyes of the main
shrouds. Some of the crew had gone out on the bowsprit to escape
the water at least for a few minutes. He wondered if the Dove would
continue to sink or if the hull would settle onto the rock or reef it
had struck. Even if it did not sink, it would be battered to pieces if
the swells from the north did not soon abate. She kept settling as he
watched and in less than a minute the entire deck was covered. Two
men had climbed from the bowsprit up the forestay and appeared as
two black lumps on the line. A powerful wave slammed against the
far side of the bow, and the two were shaken from their holds and
dropped into the water. The masts heeled over a little farther with
each swell.
Thomas began swimming away from the wreck. It was difficult in
the heaving water. He was dropped into the troughs, where he could
see nothing, and then carried up on the crests and buffeted by the
spoondrift. He had not gone far when he felt he must look at the bar-
que once more and stopped swimming when he rose on a wave.
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