"stoker-dracula-168" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

sight at sea, for even the coasting steamers, which usually "hug"
the shore so closely, kept well to seaward, and but few
fishing-boats were in sight. The only sail noticeable was a foreign
schooner with all sails set, which was seemingly going westwards.
The foolhardiness or ignorance of her officers was a prolific theme
for comment whilst she remained in sight, and efforts were made to
signal her to reduce sail in face of her danger. Before the night shut
down she was seen with sails idly napping as she gently rolled on
the undulating swell of the sea,

"As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean."

Shortly before ten o'clock the stillness of the air grew quite
oppressive, and the silence was so marked that the bleating of a sheep
inland or the barking of a dog in the town was distinctly heard, and
the band on the pier, with its lively French air, was like a discord
in the great harmony of nature's silence. A little after midnight came
a strange sound from over the sea, and high overhead the air began
to carry a strange, faint, hollow booming.

Then without warning the tempest broke. With a rapidity which, at
the time, seemed incredible, and even afterwards is impossible to
realise, the whole aspect of nature at once became convulsed. The
waves rose in growing fury, each overtopping its fellow, till in a
very few minutes the lately glassy sea was like a roaring and
devouring monster. White-crested waves beat madly on the level sands
and rushed up the shelving cliffs; others broke over the piers, and
with their spume swept the lanthorns of the lighthouses which rise
from the end of either pier of Whitby Harbour. The wind roared like
thunder, and blew with such force that it was with difficulty that
even strong men kept their feet, or clung with grim clasp to the
iron stanchions. It was found necessary to clear the entire piers from
the mass of onlookers, or else the fatalities of the night would
have been increased manifold. To add to the difficulties and dangers
of the time, masses of sea-fog came drifting inland- white, wet
clouds, which swept by in ghostly fashion, so dank and damp and cold
that it needed but little effort of imagination to think that the
spirits of those lost at sea were touching their living brethren
with the clammy hands of death, and many a one shuddered as the
wreaths of sea-mist swept by. At times the mist cleared, and the sea
for some distance could be seen in the glare of the lightning, which
now came thick and fast, followed by such sudden peals of thunder that
the whole sky overhead seemed trembling under the shock of the
footsteps of the storm.

Some of the scenes thus revealed were of immeasurable grandeur and
of absorbing interest- the sea, running mountains high, threw skywards
with each wave mighty masses of white foam, which the tempest seemed
to snatch at and whirl away into space; here and there a fishing-boat,
with a rag of sail, running madly for shelter before the blast; now