And yet the extraordinary Jasper B., although she shrieked and groaned and seemed to stagger with the force of the blow, did not move either forward or sidewise.
She flinched, but she stood her ground.
Second by second the storm increased in fury; in a moment it was no longer merely a storm, it was a tempest.

Cleggett, alarmed for the safety of his masts, now ordered his men to take in sail.
But even as he gave the order he realized that it could no longer be done.

A cloudburst, a hurricane, an electrical bombardment, struck the Jasper B.all at once.

One could not hear one's own voice.

In the glare of the lightning Cleggett saw the rigging tossing in an indescribable confusion of canvas, spars, and ropes.