High Seas

Went out at 10.30. High seas. Whole surface of sea white with long marmoreal lines of foam. Through the mistiness the waves on the horizon looked as high as mountains; or as high as a distant range of hills. Curious that distant waves should seem sio much higher than those close to. Ship rolling enormously, and her bow yawing about. Yet forward sheltered by deck-houses from following gale, one had no sensation that the boat was moving forward. Waking backward, from stem to stern, the following gale struck one sharply in the face, though one was running away from it at about 30 miles an hour.

   Big squall gradually overtook us. All sunshine clouded out for 15 minutes and snow came down almost horizontally/, and much faster than the ship in the same direction. The wind . blew spray fiercely off the water in clouds. The screws half raced from time to time.

                                  Arnold Bennett's Journals - Sunday, December 2nd 1911, en route for America.