A Tramp of the Seas
105
“May I go up in the crow’s-nest and look for her?” asked Henry.
“Certainly, but be careful. If you aren’t used to climbing aloft, you might get a nasty fall. Take these glasses, but be careful of them.”
Henry slipped the binoculars into the pocket of his coat, buttoned that garment tight, and started up the forward mast. He soon found that the quartermaster had told the truth. The rolling of the ship had seemed bad enough on the deck, but up the mast it seemed a hundred times worse, and the higher Henry went, the more violently the ship seemed to roll.
In a sense Henry was right. His position was now like that of an inverted pendulum. When the ship rolled to one side, he was carried far out by the mast, until at times his body hung over the open sea, beyond the side of the ship. Then as the ship righted and rolled in the opposite direction, Henry’s body shot through a wide are and out over the other side of the vessel, for the ship was rolling at times at an angle of more than twenty degrees. At the first big roll Henry was almost frightened. He felt himself going, going, going, and he was sure the mast was going to give way and go on over with him, pitching him into the briny deep. But just when he was sure the Iroquois must be turning over, she righted herself with a snap like the lash of a whip.