Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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The consternation and despair of those on the raft beggars description. The water was, even while the sea was calm, up to the knees of the larger part on board, while the horrors of a slow death from starvation and thirst, and the prospect of being washed off by the waves, should a storm arise, stared them in the face. Several barrels of flour had been placed on the raft at first, along with six barrels of wine and two small casks of water. When only fifty persons had got on it, their weight sunk it so low in the water that the flour was thrown into the sea, and lost. When the raft quitted the ship, with a hundred and fifty souls on her, she was a foot to a foot and a half under water, and the only food on board was a twenty-five-pound bag of biscuit, in a semi-pulpy condition, which just afforded them one meagre ration.

Some on board, to keep up the courage of the remainder, promulgated the idea that the boats had merely made sail for the island of Arguin, and that, having landed their crews, they would return. This for the moment appeased the indignation of the soldiers and others who had, with frantic gesticulations, been wringing their hands and tearing their hair. Night came on, and the wind freshened, the waves rolling over them, and throwing many down with violence. The cries of the people were mingled with the roar of the waves, whilst heavy seas constantly lifted them off their legs and threatened to wash them away. Thus, clinging desperately to the ropes, they struggled with death the whole night through.