The first lieutenant thanked the captain for his good opinion, and
hoped that it would not be the last compliment which he paid him.

"I hope not, too; but a few minutes will decide the point."

The ship was now within two cables' lengths of the rocky point; some
few of the men I observed to clasp their hands, but most of them were
silently taking off their jackets, and kicking off their shoes, that
they might not lose a chance of escape provided the ship struck.

"'Twill be touch and go, indeed, Falcon," observed the captain (for I
had clung to the belaying pins, close to them for the last half-hour
that the mainsail had been set). "Come aft, you and I must take the
helm. We shall want _nerve_ there, and only there, now."

The captain and first lieutenant went aft, and took the fore-spokes of
the wheel, and O'Brien, at a sign made by the captain, laid hold of the
spokes behind him. An old quartermaster kept his station at the
fourth. The roaring of the seas on the rocks, with the howling of the
wind, were dreadful; but the sight was more dreadful than the noise.
For a few minutes I shut my eyes, but anxiety forced me to open them
again. As near as I could judge, we were not twenty yards from the
rocks, at the time that the ship passed abreast of them. We were in
the midst of the foam, which boiled around us; and as the ship was
driven nearer to them, and careened with the wave, I thought that our
main yard-arm would have touched the rock; and at this moment a gust of
wind came on, which laid the ship on her beam-ends, and checked her
progress through the water, while the accumulating noise was deafening.
A few moments more the ship dragged on, another wave dashed over her