Hope left me, and we turned homeward again, sailing from Boston direct to London.

It was in late December, and we had a terrific voyage, and one of the hairbreadth escapes of which I have had so many.

In the height of the gale Russie and I were standing in the companion-way, watching the storm, for the boy loved the sea dearly and enjoyed the heaviest weather, when the captain called to me to say that we were not safe there and had better go below.

Only a few minutes later an exceptionally heavy sea broke over the deck, took five boats out of the davits or crushed them, carried away in splinters the companion-way in which we had been standing, and swept the decks, the chief officer being saved only by being lashed to the railing of the bridge, and the fall of the mass of water on the deck breaking several of the deck beams.

We had to lie to for the rest of the gale.