The forestay parted, and then with a crash and rending of broken timber the mast went some six feet from the deck, falling aft and to port, and taking with it half the length of the gunwale from amidships.
After that crash we stood and looked at one another, each fearing that there must be some hurt.

But there was none.

We had been well aft, and the falling masthead and yard had not reached us, though it had been too near to be pleasant.

Maybe the end of the yard, as it fell, missed me by a foot or so.
But though Gerda's face was pale, and her eyes wide with the terror of the wreck, she never screamed or let go her hold of the sternpost to which she had been clinging.

She was a sea king's daughter..