CHAPTER TEN.
DISRATED.
I can't say what the rest felt; but I know that I, for one, was frightened when I heard that strange gurgling noise and saw the great black thing, spinning round like a teetotum and swirling up the water, coming down on our ship as if to overwhelm her! The squalls, which succeeded each other from different directions in rapid sequence, were even more dangerous than the water-spout; but Captain Miles was too good a seaman to be easily beaten, even by the most adverse circumstances.
Telling off some of the best hands to the fore and main-braces on either side, so that these could be let go or hauled taut in an instant as the wind shifted, thus necessitating the vessel changing her tack with similar rapidity, he went to the helm himself; and from this point, with the assistance of Moggridge, he conned the ship as coolly as if he were in charge of a yacht trying to weather the mark-boat in a race so as to get to windward of her competitors! The captain was trying to make as much northing as he could, as well as endeavouring to run out of reach of the water-spout, which latter, although it gyrated about in the water so queerly and seemed moving every way at once, came up more from the eastwards, travelling to the south of west apparently; and, expert seaman that he was, in spite of the veering wind, which backed round every moment, he gallantly manoeuvred so as to gain his object--sailing ahead between the squalls, as it were.
"Ready about!" he would call out one minute, when the main-topsail was backed and the fore-yard swung round; and, almost as soon as this was done and the weather braces handed, the cry "'bout ship!" was again repeated, when the _Josephine_ was brought once mere back to her previous bearings.
Such tackings and beatings about, surely, no ship ever underwent before in so short a time! "By Jingo, he's a sailor every inch of him!" I heard one of the old hands of the crew murmur in admiration as he pulled in with a will the weather braces for about the sixth time in as many minutes; and, truth to say, I could not help sharing the feeling of respect all the crew had for our captain, who, easy-going as he was generally in fine weather, letting the first mate then attend to the working of the ship, he was "all there," as they said, when the necessity for prompt action in any emergency called for exertion and made him show himself in his true colours.
But, struggle to outstrip it as much as he might, the water-spout came nearer and nearer to us, bearing down still broadside-on upon the ship.
As I stood close to the captain and Moggridge, who alone were on the poop besides myself, Mr Marline and Davis the second mate being in the waist, looking after the men at the braces amidships, I noticed that the pillar of cloud became more transparent in proportion as it decreased in size from the upper portion, until it seemed almost perfectly so at the lower extremity where it touched the sea.

I observed, too, that a small inner column of equal diameter, looking like a glass tube, went up the middle.

This, evidently, was the water which was being sucked up into the mass of vapour above as if by a syphon.
Fortunately, just as it seemed almost touching the ship, when the whirling waves round its base made us oscillate from side to side, the _Josephine_, heeling over to her chain-plates from a sudden rush of wind that appeared to accompany it, the portentous column of vapour darted off almost at right angles to its former course; and then, the cloud, having taken up more of the sea-water than it could contain, burst with a loud hissing sort of report, the contents falling around us in the form of a heavy downpour of rain which sluiced our decks down, but happily did no further damage.
"Thank God!" exclaimed Captain Miles reverently, taking off his cap and looking upwards in grateful recognition of the providential care that had watched over and protected us from the fearful peril which had threatened us; and his thanksgiving was participated in by more than one other, I knew, for I could see Moggridge's lips moving in silent prayer, while I felt inclined to fall on my knees, my heart was so full of joy and gladness at our narrow escape.
I was overpowered with a feeling of wonder and awe.
Strangely enough, there seemed some strong connection between the water- spout and the wind; for, no sooner had the column of vapour broken up, than the heavy clouds dispersed away to leeward.

The sun then came out again, and the squally weather calmed down to a gentle breeze from the south-east that enabled us to haul round again on our proper course, the ship presently being covered anew with canvas and the reefs in the topsails shaken out.
When all danger was over, though, the whole thing puzzled me very much.
"What is a water-spout ?" I asked Captain Miles later on in the evening after dinner, as he was having a quiet cigar on the poop before turning in.

I saw that he then looked inclined for a chat, and thought it a good opportunity to seek for information.
He answered my question in the Irish way, by asking me another.
"Did you ever see a whirlwind when you were at Grenada, Tom ?" he inquired.
"Yes," I replied, "I recollect a long time ago noticing one at Mount Pleasant once, and wondering at the way in which all the loose straw in the stable-yard was circled round and round, as if in a funnel, and then drawn up into the sky." "Well, then," said Captain Miles, "the celebrated Dr Franklin has demonstrated, if I recollect aright, that a whirlwind on land, and a water-spout at sea, arise from similar general causes, and may be considered one and the same thing." "But, what is the cause of them ?" I asked now.
"The action of opposing atmospheric currents, Tom, if you can understand what I mean.