However, the Nautilus, in the midst
of the tempest, confirmed the words of a clever engineer,
"There is no well-constructed hull that cannot defy the sea."
This was not a resisting rock; it was a steel spindle,
obedient and movable, without rigging or masts, that braved its fury
with impunity. However, I watched these raging waves attentively.
They measured fifteen feet in height, and 150 to 175 yards long,
and their speed of propagation was thirty feet per second.
Their bulk and power increased with the depth of the water.
Such waves as these, at the Hebrides, have displaced a mass
weighing 8,400 lb. They are they which, in the tempest of
December 23rd, 1864, after destroying the town of Yeddo, in Japan,
broke the same day on the shores of America. The intensity of
the tempest increased with the night. The barometer, as in 1860
at Reunion during a cyclone, fell seven-tenths at the close of day.
I saw a large vessel pass the horizon struggling painfully.
She was trying to lie to under half steam, to keep up above the waves.
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