11 A.M.
I struck my head , and , as I rolled downward , swooned . When I came to myself , I was lying on the very bottom step , which is thinly washed by the wine-waves : another roll and I suppose I must have drowned . I sat there an hour , lost in amazement , then crossed the causeway , came down to the _ Speransa _ with the motor , went through her , spent the day in work , slept on her , worked again to-day , till four , at both ship and time-fuses -LRB- I with only 700 fuses left , and in Stamboul alone must be 8,000 houses , without counting Galata , Tophana , Kassim-pacha , Scutari , and the rest -RRB- , started out at 5.30 , and am now at 11 P.M. lying motionless two miles off the north coast of the island of Marmora , with moonlight gloating on the water , a faint north breeze , and the little pale land looking immensely stretched-out , solemn and great , as if that were the world , and there were nothing else ; and the tiny island at its end immense , and the _ Speranza _ vast , and I only little . To-morrow at 11 A.M. I will moor the _ Speranza _ in the Golden Horn at the spot where there is that low damp nook of the bagnio behind the naval magazines and that hill where the palace of the Capitan Pacha is . * * * * * I found that great tangle of ships in the Golden Horn wonderfully preserved , many with hardly any moss-growths . This must be due , I suppose , to the little Ali-Bey and Kezat-Hanah , which flow into the Horn at the top , and made no doubt a constant current . Ah , I remember the place : long ago I lived here some months , or , it may be , years .