The gale increased rapidly during the first watch. Large drops of rain mingled with the spray, distant thunder rolled to windward, and occasional gleams of lightning pierced through the intense darkness of the night. The officers and men of the watches below, with sealed eyes and thoughtless hearts, were in their hammocks, trusting to those on deck for security.
— Frederick Marryat, The King's Own
Three-Masted Ship by Night, by Frederick J. Tudgay, 1869.














