At midnight I was at the tiller and suddenly noticed a line of clear sky between the south and south-west.
I called to the other men that the sky was clearing, and then a moment later I realized that what I had seen was not a rift in the clouds but the white crest of an enormous wave.

During twenty-six years' experience of the ocean in all its moods I had not encountered a wave so gigantic.

It was a mighty upheaval of the ocean, a thing quite apart from the big white-capped seas that had been our tireless enemies for many days.

I shouted, "For God's sake, hold on! It's got us!" Then came a moment of suspense that seemed drawn out into hours.

White surged the foam of the breaking sea around us.