noon
It was at this time looking very black and wild to windward ; the sky all along the south-western horizon being of a deep slaty , indigo hue , swept by swift - flying streamers of dirty , whitish-grey cloud ; while the leaden-grey sea , scourged into a waste of steep , foam-capped ridges and deep , seething , wind-furrowed valleys , had already risen to such a height as to completely becalm our low canvas every time that the schooner settled down into the trough . The time was evidently at hand when it would be necessary for us to heave-to ; the schooner was therefore got round upon the starboard tack , with her head to the southward ; and , as the barometer was still falling , the hands were set to work to send down the yards and house the topmasts while it was still possible to do so . The task was a dangerous one ; but we had plenty of strength , and , the men working with a will , it was accomplished within an hour ; and the schooner was then ready , as we hoped , to face the worst that could happen . By noon it was blowing so furiously , and the sea had increased to such an extent , that the skipper determined not to risk the vessel any longer by further attempting to sail her , and she was accordingly hove-to under a close-reefed foresail , when everybody but the officer in charge of the deck , and the man at the wheel , went below . As the day wore on the weather grew worse , and by nightfall it was blowing a perfect hurricane , the force of the wind being so great that , even under the small rag of a close-reefed foresail , the schooner was bowed down to her water-ways , and her lee scuppers were all afloat . Yet the little craft was making splendid weather of it , riding the mountainous seas as light and dry as a gull , looking well up into the wind , and fore-reaching at the rate of fully three knots in the hour . But it was a dreary and uncomfortable time for us all , the air being so full of scud-water that it was like being exposed to a continuous torrent of driving rain ; despite our oil-skins and sou ' - westers half an hour on deck was sufficient to secure one a drenching to the skin , while the spray , driven into one 's face by the furious sweep of the hurricane , cut and stung like the lash of a whip .