The mainyard no longer supported by the brace, and
pressed by the whole power of the straining topsail, flew forward and
upward till it was bent nearly double, when with a loud crash it parted
in the slings, splintering the topsail into ribands with a noise like
thunder.
The ship was now in the greatest peril, for there was no longer
sufficient after canvas to keep her head to the wind against the
powerful pressure of the foretopmast staysail, and in another moment she
must have fallen into the trough of the sea, and probably been at the
least dismasted, if not altogether swamped. But the quick eye of the
captain of the foretop saw the danger, and springing to the staysail
halyards he cut the sail away, and the ship relieved of pressure
forward, again came up to the wind.
The main trysail was now lowered, though not without splitting the sail,
and a small three-cornered storm trysail hoisted in its place. Even
under this minimum of canvas the tremendous pressure of the gale upon
her spars forced her down in the water several streaks, and the idlers
and boys were lashed for safety under the weather bulwarks, life-lines
being stretched before them to prevent them from falling to leeward.
So far as it was possible under the circumstances to estimate the
probable extent of this cyclone, its greatest diameter would appear to
have been from about one hundred and sixty to two hundred miles, whilst
the diameter of the vortex, through a considerable portion of which, if
not actually through the centre, the Alabama appears to have passed,
would probably be from about thirty to five-and-thirty or perhaps forty
miles.
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