Kempenfeldt and her crew off Spithead in 1782, while undergoing a
partial careening.]




* * * * *




AN ESCAPE.


After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a half, as we
reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us,
and plainly bade us expect our end. In a word, it took us with such a
fury that it overset the boat at once; and, separating us as well from
the boat as from one another, gave us not time hardly to say, "O God!"
for we were all swallowed up in a moment.

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sunk
into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not deliver
myself from the waves, so as to draw breath, till that wave having
driven me, or rather carried me a vast way on towards the shore, and
having spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry,
but half dead from the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind
as well as breath left, that, seeing myself nearer the mainland than I
expected, I got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the
land as fast as I could, before another wave should return, and take me