I was beneath the water, suffocating and drowning.

My feet were out from under me, and I was turning over and over and being swept along I knew not where.

Several times I collided against hard objects, once striking my right knee a terrible blow.

Then the flood seemed suddenly to subside and I was breathing the good air again.

I had been swept against the galley and around the steerage companion-way from the weather side into the lee scuppers.