A fierce gale had been raging for full twenty-four hours, and the tempest was suggestive of what the sailor dreads most--shipwreck, with its long train of disaster--suffering, privation, and death.

It was hardly possible that such a terrible storm had swept the sea without carrying down some vessels with precious freights of human life.
The Young America had safely ridden out the gale, for all that human art could do to make her safe and strong had been done without regard to expense.

No niggardly owners had built her of poor and insufficient material, or sent her to sea weakly manned and with incompetent officers.

The ship was heavily manned; eighteen or twenty men would have been deemed a sufficient crew to work her; and though her force consisted of boys, they would average more than two thirds of the muscle and skill of able-bodied seamen.
There were other ships abroad on the vast ocean, which could not compare with her in strength and appointments, and which had not one third of her working power on board.

No ship can absolutely defy the elements, and there is no such thing as absolute safety in a voyage across the ocean; but there is far less peril than people who have had no experience generally suppose.