There I stood some while , a little dizzy with the unsteadiness of all around me , perhaps a little afraid , and yet vastly pleased with these strange sights ; the captain meanwhile pointing out the strangest , and telling me their names and uses . `` But where is my uncle ? '' said I suddenly . `` Ay , '' said Hoseason , with a sudden grimness , `` that 's the point . '' I felt I was lost . With all my strength , I plucked myself clear of him and ran to the bulwarks . Sure enough , there was the boat pulling for the town , with my uncle sitting in the stern . I gave a piercing cry -- `` Help , help ! Murder ! '' -- so that both sides of the anchorage rang with it , and my uncle turned round where he was sitting , and showed me a face full of cruelty and terror . It was the last I saw . Already strong hands had been plucking me back from the ship 's side ; and now a thunderbolt seemed to strike me ; I saw a great flash of fire , and fell senseless . CHAPTER VII I GO TO SEA IN THE BRIG `` COVENANT '' OF DYSART I came to myself in darkness , in great pain , bound hand and foot , and deafened by many unfamiliar noises . There sounded in my ears a roaring of water as of a huge mill-dam , the thrashing of heavy sprays , the thundering of the sails , and the shrill cries of seamen . The whole world now heaved giddily up , and now rushed giddily downward ; and so sick and hurt was I in body , and my mind so much confounded , that it took me a long while , chasing my thoughts up and down , and ever stunned again by a fresh stab of pain , to realise that I must be lying somewhere bound in the belly of that unlucky ship , and that the wind must have strengthened to a gale . With the clear perception of my plight , there fell upon me a blackness of despair , a horror of remorse at my own folly , and a passion of anger at my uncle , that once more bereft me of my senses . When I returned again to life , the same uproar , the same confused and violent movements , shook and deafened me ; and presently , to my other pains and distresses , there was added the sickness of an unused landsman on the sea . In that time of my adventurous youth , I suffered many hardships ; but none that was so crushing to my mind and body , or lit by so few hopes , as these first hours aboard the brig. I heard a gun fire , and supposed the storm had proved too strong for us , and we were firing signals of distress . The thought of deliverance , even by death in the deep sea , was welcome to me . Yet it was no such matter ; but -LRB- as I was afterwards told -RRB- a common habit of the captain 's , which I here set down to show that even the worst man may have his kindlier side .
We were then passing , it appeared , within some miles of Dysart , where the brig was built , and where old Mrs. XXXXX , the captain 's mother , had come some years before to live ; and whether outward or inward bound , the Covenant was never suffered to go by that place by day , without a gun fired and colours shown .
DYSART Hoseason VII bulwarks landsman mill-dam storm thrashing thunderbolt unsteadiness