Reduced by the wind to a reptilian mode of locomotion, they crawled forward on elbows and bellies. They lashed their safety lines to the foremast, struggled to their knees, and hauled on the halyard with all their strength. The gaff began to rise, but as the foresail filled, the forces on it made hoisting it as difficult as hoisting a barrel of lead up from the bottom of a well. The boys pulled, howled, pulled. They had to get the ship to sail; she would be crushed on the rocks in minutes if they did not. They howled and pulled some more and thought their straining muscles would burst through their skin. The gaff rose another foot, and then a foot more, and the reefed sail, struck by a hammer blow of wind, formed a deep, horizontal trough. It was up! Sheets and preventers were eased for sailing off the wind. Will and Nathaniel slithered back to the helm, tied their safety lines to the wheelbox, seized the spokes, and, bending their knees to put their weight into the effort, turned the wheel to bring the ship on course. She had a large rudder, but a barn door seemed too small for such a seaway. She would not answer and continued to drift on her side, lifeless as a log, indifferent to her fate. Nathaniel glanced eastward, to see how close they were to the reef, but everything ten yards beyond the rail was an impenetrable murk. Then Double Eagle stirred, making a final effort to save herself. She began to sail. Soaring sideways up the faces of seas, sliding down, she wasn’t sailing well; yet she was sailing, against all odds. Nathaniel, gripping the wheelbox with his knees, his fingers feeling as if they were frozen to the spokes, his forearms aching, held his gaze dead ahead, trying to see through the white merge of sea and sky, the blown spray that stung like a knotted whip. As the schooner passed out of the lee of Loggerhead Reef, the waves soared to sickening heights. He dared not look at them, afraid the sight would unnerve him entirely.

“Bear off … Now … Slow …”

Will’s yell was reduced to a barely audible whisper.