Australian Tales - Setis

A Crippled Ship with a Wrangling Crew.
MANY years ago, when our fleet of coasting steamers was far less
extensive than it is at the present time, and when perhaps the discipline
on ship board was less perfect, I left Sydney one night for a northern port
not far away. I was accompanied by a young gentleman (now occupying
an influential position in the colony), who was about to pay a visit to my
house, for a little relaxation from hard college studies. Strange to say,
although a native of the colony, my friend had never before been on the
sea, and when the steamer first felt the ocean roll as she passed the light
ship, he began to anticipate that awful sensation, of which he had heard
and read such moving descriptions, i. e., sea sickness; and the bare idea
of it turned his complexion a blighted lemon colour. To counteract his
squeamishness if possible, I led him under the bridge between the
paddle-boxes, where the motion of the ship was less perceptible; and
there he stood trying to analyze his peculiar feelings, and philosophising
thereupon, much to my edification and amusement, for I had never
experienced sea sickness, and had never before seen a sea-sick man
merry, or heard one make a joke that was not of a dismal cast.
There were many passengers on board, but they were all below, for
there was a strong head wind and a drizzling rain, though the sea was not
so heavy as I had often seen it at the same spot. Soon after the steamer
had shaved round North Head, she began to pitch and toss and to duck
her head under water, after the playful style of fast steamers in general,
which astonished my inexperienced friend, who, by-the-bye, asked me in
rather a quavering voice, “If there was any danger of our going to the
bottom?”
“Oh, dear, no!” I replied, “we are safe enough. This is the best sea-boat
in the colony, and the captain knows the coast as well as you know
Church Hill. I then explained that the vessel was in troubled waters,
caused by the rebound of the waves after striking the base of the cliffs,
but that she would be steadier when we got further to sea. As I was
ending my comforting explanation, I saw an immense breaking wave rise
on our starboard bow, and I had just time to direct my half paralyzed
friend to hold fast to the handle of a pump, affixed to the paddle-box,
when a green sea broke over the bows and filled the decks with water,
knocking a number of barrels of beer down to leeward, turning a carriage
on deck upside down, and nearly throwing the vessel on her beam ends.