Then, Seeing No Remedy, They Consulted What
To Do Next.
They could carry no sail at first--no, not a knot; nor
do anything but run away afore it.
The only thing they had to
think on was to keep her out at sea as far as they could, for fear
of a point of land called the Dead Man's Head, which lies to the
eastward of Falmouth Haven; and then, if they could escape the
land, thought to run in for Plymouth next morning, so, if possible,
to save their lives.
"In this frighted condition they drove away at a prodigious rate,
having sometimes the bonnet of their foresail a little out, but the
yard lowered almost to the deck--sometimes the ship almost under
water, and sometimes above, keeping still in the offing, for fear
of the land, till they might see daylight. But when the day broke
they found they were to think no more of Plymouth, for they were
far enough beyond it; and the first land they made was Peverel
Point, being the southernmost land of the Isle of Purbeck, in
Dorsetshire, and a little to the westward of the Isle of Wight; so
that now they were in a terrible consternation, and driving still
at a prodigious rate. By seven o'clock they found themselves
broadside of the Isle of Wight.
"Here they consulted again what to do to save their lives. One of
the boys was for running her into the Downs; but the man objected
that, having no anchor or cable nor boat to go on shore with, and
the storm blowing off shore in the Downs, they should be inevitably
blown off and lost upon the unfortunate Goodwin--which, it seems,
the man had been on once before and narrowly escaped.
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