Kicking Canvas #669080

It may have been bad steering on the part of Kemp, the stowaway, a shift of wind or the combination of both. The fact remains that the ship was taken aback.
It happened at an awkward time. There was a darkness that seemed almost tangible; sooty vapours of clouds streaming past as low as the mastheads, the roar of mighty waters hurling themselves brutally over the rail to sweep the main deck with irresistible force and, above all, the deafening thunder of kicking canvas up aloft. We were enclosed in a little mad universe of our own; nothing but tumult, fury—and the ship.