About nine in the
morning
-LSB- 26 -RSB- Rest . The weather in the end considerably worsened ; the wind sang in the shrouds , the sea swelled higher , and the ship began to labour and cry out among the billows . The song of the leadsman in the chains was now scarce ceasing , for we thrid all the way among shoals . About nine in the morning , in a burst of wintry sun between two squalls of hail , I had my first look of Holland -- a line of windmills birling in the breeze . It was besides my first knowledge of these daft-like contrivances , which gave me a near sense of foreign travel and a new world and life . We came to an anchor about half-past eleven , outside the harbour of Helvoetsluys , in a place where the sea sometimes broke and the ship pitched outrageously . You may be sure we were all on deck , save Mrs. Gebbie , some of us in cloaks , others mantled in the ship 's tarpaulins , all clinging on by ropes , and jesting the most like old sailor-folk that we could imitate .