And now came calamity upon calamity. A tremendous sea broke the tiller at
the rudder-head, and not only was the ship in danger of falling off and
shipping the sea, but the rudder hammered her awfully, and bade fair to
stave in her counter, which is another word for Destruction. Thus death
came at them with two hands open at once.
These vessels always carry a spare tiller: they tried to ship it; but the
difficulty was prodigious. No light but the miserable deck-lantern--one
glowworm in Egypt supernaturally darkened--the _Agra_ never on an even
keel, and heeling over like a seesaw more than a ship; and then every
time they did place the tiller, and get the strain on with their luff
tackles, the awful sea gave it a blow and knocked it away like a hair.
At last they hit it off, or thought they had, for the ponderous thumps of
the rudder ceased entirely. However, the ship did not obey this new
tiller like the old one: her head fell off in an unlucky moment when
seven waves were rolling in one, and, on coming to the windward again,
she shipped a sea. It came in over her bow transversely; broke as high as
the mainstay, and hid and buried the whole ship before the mast; carried
away the waist bulwarks on both sides, filled the launch, and drowned the
live stock which were in it; swept four water-butts and three men away
into the sea, like corks and straws; and sent tons of water down the
forescuttle and main hatchway, which was partly opened, not to stifle the
crew, and flooded the gun-deck ankle-deep.
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