It must have caught us some two leagues north of Malin Head; for, as we drove down before it, we could hear a thunder of breakers on our right, which Ludar pronounced to be the Tor Rocks, off the island of Instrahull.
"'Tis a mercy to be past them, anyhow," said he.

"But see, for all our turning of the helm, we are driving down the wind." So indeed we were.

To our dismay, the _Gerona_ sailed almost as far sideways as she did forward; and, had we not been well out to seaward to start with, we might have been hard put to it even to clear the headlands of Innishowen.
About midnight there was nothing for it but to order the sails to be let go, and depend only on the oars for our course.

After that, for a while, we went better.

But the men, worn-out and dispirited, pulled with but half a heart; and hour by hour the vessel drifted in, until it was clear that nothing but a shifting of the wind or standing to at anchor could keep us off the opposite rocks.
Off Innishowen, as we crossed the mouth of the Foyle river, we fell on a shoal of terrible shallows, which spun the _Gerona_ round like a top, and washed her in raging foam from stem to stern.
"Go and tell the Don he must either let go his anchors, or double the men at the oars," said Ludar, when presently we had staggered out again into blacker water.
Word was given immediately to try the former, and the only two anchors we had were let over.