"Aground" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... point, and she settled down to a troubled study of the part, only to run hopelessly aground when Desdemona, in her stiff white satin gown, announced her intention of cleaving to the robust blackamoor, in spite of fate and father. That seemed a praiseworthy action, "taken by and large," but we could not altogether ...
— Meadow Grass - Tales of New England Life • Alice Brown
... ringing of bells, a rolling of drums and a prodigious blowing of horns and trumpets; the which set me a-sweating in despite the cool night wind, as, chin on shoulder, I paddled slowly along, unsure of my going and very fearful lest I run aground. In the midst of which anxieties I heard Sir Richard's voice, calm and gentle and ...
— Martin Conisby's Vengeance • Jeffery Farnol
... they had settled down to nice steady paddling and were making good progress upstream, Uncle Teddy called out that he was aground. The river bed seemed suddenly to rise up and strike the bottom of the canoes. A few feet back the water was swift and deep; here a sand bar stretched across their path and brought them ...
— The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle - The Trail of the Seven Cedars • Hildegard G. Frey
... We had, however, no opportunity of trying our flag of truce, for as soon as we came within range of musket-shot, a volley from two hundred concealed militiamen struck down four of my men. There was then nothing left for it but to board, and bring out the vessels. Two of them were aground, and we set them on fire, it being dead low water (thanks to the delay in the morning): in doing this, we had more men wounded. I then took possession of the other two vessels, and giving one of them in charge of the midshipman, who was quite a ...
— Frank Mildmay • Captain Frederick Marryat
... but we have had a ducking. There was a steamer aground on the Middle Ground, and watching her we forgot all about the tide, and the boat drifted away and we got caught. Of course I could swim, so there was no danger for me; but it would have gone hard with ...
— A Chapter of Adventures • G. A. Henty
... 28th. At 2 P.M. I received orders to get the vessel under weigh and proceed up the bay—half-past 2 P.M. weighed and made sail, the Investigator following us. At half-past 3 P.M. perceived the Investigator to be aground in consequence of which we let go our kedge and I went in the boat ahead. At 5 P.M. on the Investigator floating; again got under weigh, kept standing up the bay sounding and making signals. At 6 P.M. anchored with the small bower ...
— The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson - With The Journal Of Her First Commander Lieutenant James Grant, R.N • Ida Lee
... beautiful gown for evening or summer wear.' Summer! Why, by the big dipper, we're aground again! Bos'n don't want summer clothes. It's ...
— Cy Whittaker's Place • Joseph C. Lincoln
... see, far southward, this quiet day, The hills of Newbury rolling away, With the many tints of the season gay, Dreamily blending in autumn mist Crimson, and gold, and amethyst. Long and low, with dwarf trees crowned, Plum Island lies, like a whale aground, A stone's toss over the narrow sound. Inland, as far as the eye can go, The hills curve round like a bonded bow; A silver arrow from out them sprung, I see the shine of the Quasycung; And, round and round, over ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various
... pursued his course across the lake; running his boat aground, on a small pebbly strand near ...
— A Love Story • A Bushman
... the service that my leg, much wounded, could render me; for there was surely a good quarter of a league of road to make. I found the boat as they had told me, but, the water having subsided, it was aground. I push it, in order to set it afloat; not being able to effect this, on account of its weight, I call to the ship, that they bring the skiff to ferry me, but no news. I know not whether they heard me; at all events no one appeared. The daylight meanwhile was beginning to discover to the Iroquois ...
— Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664 • Various
... its seams. It was handed over to a pilot. It was navigated in proper style. "I steered about the sea. The corpses drifted about like logs. I opened a port-hole.... I steered over countries which were now a terrible sea." The pilot made the land at Nizir and let her go aground. ...
— A Dweller in Mesopotamia - Being the Adventures of an Official Artist in the Garden of Eden • Donald Maxwell
... himself then took to his long-boat, and rowing out to the islands, ordered mass to be sung. The fleet in the meantime was forced up the channel; and the tempest that day was so furious that some vessels cut away their masts, others ran aground. The King's ship also drove into the sound, tho' seven anchors, including that taken from the transport, had been used. They then let go an eighth, which was the sheet anchor; the ship still drove, but the anchors at length took fast hold. Five vessels were cast ashore. So great was this storm ...
— The Norwegian account of Haco's expedition against Scotland, A.D. MCCLXIII. • Sturla oretharson
... sharply to the shore. The girl was fortunate in being able to find cover in the overhanging foliage, behind which she took refuge. The water was quite shallow there. The keel of the rowboat touched bottom. She heard the grating sound as the boat grounded, but knew that she was not so firmly aground that she ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls Afloat • Janet Aldridge
... spreading confusion in their ranks, repulsing the attack, and capturing twenty of the animals. Four days later the rebels made the desperate attack on Omdurman, when, as stated, communications were cut, and the Husseinyeh ran aground. In attempting to carry her off and to check the further progress of the rebels the Ismailia was badly hit, and the incident was one of those only too frequent at all stages of the siege, when Gordon wrote: "Every time I hear the gun fire I have a twitch of the heart of gnawing anxiety ...
— The Life of Gordon, Volume II • Demetrius Charles Boulger
... then slipped his cable and stood away till again out of range, when he resumed the action, choosing always his own position, which he was well able to do from the comparatively manageable condition of his ship. Finding it impossible to get into action, Porter next attempted to run the Essex aground, where the crew could escape and the vessel be destroyed. She was headed for the beach and approached within musket-shot of it, when a flaw of wind from the land cruelly turned ...
— Admiral Farragut • A. T. Mahan
... dignity of a fine exit was denied the Admiral. The boat was by this time firmly aground, and he was forced to stand, forming large pools upon the stern-board, while the grinning Caleb pushed her off. And still Mr. Fogo looked mildly on, with ...
— The Astonishing History of Troy Town • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... may be made of holland, ticking, canvas, or similar materials, in the following manner, and might be used with advantage by the crew of a vessel aground some way from the mainland, who are about to swim for their lives:—Cut out two complete rings, of 16 inches outer diameter and 8 inches inner diameter; sew these together along both edges, with as fine a needle as possible and with double thread: add strong shoulder-straps, so that it shall ...
— The Art of Travel - Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries • Francis Galton
... overboard. All her tackle was cut asunder. Her upper works were razed and level with the water. She was incapable of receiving any direction or motion, except that given her by the billows. Three Spanish galleons had been burnt. One had been run aground to save her company. A thousand Spaniards had been slain or drowned. Grenville wished to blow up his shattered hulk. A majority of the handful of survivors preferred to accept the Spanish Admiral's terms. They were that all lives should be spared, ...
— Sir Walter Ralegh - A Biography • William Stebbing
... reader a better idea of the forces engaged on both sides, we give the following list of ships. It is right, however, to add that one of those belonging to the English (the Culloden) ran aground on a shoal when about to go into action, and took no part in ...
— The Battle and the Breeze • R.M. Ballantyne
... barely flutters, don't it? Henry, go mind the sweep and see we don't get aground! Keppel, you start a fire and warm some water! Connie, you tear up my other petticoat for bandages now, stir around, all of you!" And then began a period of breathless activity. They first lifted Yancy into the circle ...
— The Prodigal Judge • Vaughan Kester
... Tette on the 17th August, 1858; the navigation was rather difficult, the Zambesi from Shupanga to Senna being wide and full of islands; our black pilot, John Scisssors, a serf, sometimes took the wrong channel and ran us aground. Nothing abashed, he would exclaim in an aggrieved tone, "This is not the path, it is back yonder." "Then why didn't you go yonder at first?" growled out our Kroomen, who had the work of getting the vessel off. When they spoke roughly to poor Scissors, ...
— A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries • David Livingstone
... discovered that the danger of the Medusa was not so great as was at first supposed, various persons proposed to transport the troops to the island of Arguin, which was conjectured to be not far from the place where we lay aground. Others advised to take us all successively to the coast of the desert of Sahara, by the means of our boats, and with provisions sufficient to form a caravan, to reach the island of Saint Louis, at Senegal. The events which afterwards ensued proved this ...
— Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy • Anonymous
... after the raft was finished, loaded, and ready to set forth on its uncertain voyage, it remained hard and fast aground where it was built. To Winn's impatience it seemed as though high-water ...
— Raftmates - A Story of the Great River • Kirk Munroe
... every incident of the excursion, to fill his verses. The lake has much the shape of an hour-glass, the northern and southern portions being connected by a winding strait, so crooked that it requires the constant effort of the pilot to prevent the little steamer from running aground. There used to be fine fishing in it,—large perch, bass, and a species of fresh-water salmon often weighing ...
— The Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne • Frank Preston Stearns
... had changed into the service of Messrs. Liddell and Gordon; these gentlemen had begun to dabble in the new field of marine telegraphy; and Fleeming was already face to face with his life's work. That impotent sense of his own value, as of a ship aground, which makes one of the agonies of youth, began to fall from him. New problems which he was endowed to solve, vistas of new inquiry which he was fitted to explore, opened before him continually. His gifts had found their avenue ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson, Volume 9 • Robert Louis Stevenson
... re-embarked, though still unwell. Their second start was followed by immediate disaster. Leaving the mouth of the harbour, two leagues distant from Port Royal, they were carried out of the channel by the tide and went aground. 'At the first blow of our boat upon the rocks the rudder broke, a part of the keel and three or four planks were smashed and some ribs stove in, which frightened us, for our barque filled immediately; and all that we could do was to wait until the sea fell, ...
— The Founder of New France - A Chronicle of Champlain • Charles W. Colby
... was only four miles. The weather was well-behaved as a whole, although occasionally the rain came down at a pour. Being so early in the summer, the rivers were very full, so there was never any danger of running aground, although they had to face many risks in going down the rapids, when they had crossed the height of land on a ten-mile portage, and began to descend the Mattagami River. The longest journey must come to an end at last, however, and one hot afternoon late on in June ...
— A Countess from Canada - A Story of Life in the Backwoods • Bessie Marchant
... 200 yards from land I darted down below to warn the men to lie down in case we struck rock, when the impact would have been violent. I held on to a stanchion. We were fast in the sand before I was really aware that the ship was aground—there to lie for four years, to be shot at constantly whilst we occupied Gallipoli, but in spite of all her buffeting to serve many uses, and finally to become an object of veneration, "as holy as Westminster Abbey" some one says of her in ...
— The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" • George Davidson
... twilight of the deep. One of the shadows wavered and glided along the window, and the round, tragic eyes of a fish glanced at Andrey. The fish disappeared in the depths below the boat. Evidently the Kate had not run aground, nor were there any submerged reefs in that quarter. Andrey gave an order to raise the boat several feet. Then numerous shadows leaped aside and scattered, and the captain plainly saw a jumbled heap of ropes and ladders. It was obvious that the ...
— The Literary World Seventh Reader • Various
... Cattiva, the islands of Caperosa and Cape Marmora; having discovered two hundred leagues along the coast. He thence returned to the island of Cuba, and from that to Jamaica, where he laid his ships aground, on account of their bottoms being much ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II • Robert Kerr
... quickly against the baby's cold cheek. It was the lighthouse at the entrance of the bay. As she was yet wondering the tree suddenly rolled a little, dragged a little, and then seemed to lie quiet and still. She put out her hand and the current gurgled against it. The tree was aground, and, by the position of the light and the noise of the surf, aground upon ...
— The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales • Bret Harte
... a vessel on each side of the kelson; but strictly taken, it is only so much of her bottom as she rests upon when aground. Such ships as have long and withal broad floors, lie on the ground with most security; whereas others which are narrow in the floor, fall over on their sides and break ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth
... gone aground," I said. "I will find out how much damage has been done. I will bring back what is necessary. The Princess lies in ...
— Hurricane Island • H. B. Marriott Watson
... of the ship, as the depth will vary a fathom or more even in the breadth of the vessel, and it is of great consequence that the leadsmen give the depth correctly, as a wrong report might cause the ship to run aground. The time that the leadsman is employed in taking soundings is often a period of deep anxiety to the crew and passengers, especially if the vessel be near an unknown coast. When the decrease in the number of fathoms is ...
— Thrilling Stories Of The Ocean • Marmaduke Park
... the fish, which was going slowly through the water, all ignorant of the terrible foes who were pursuing him, Tom Lokins raised the harpoon high above his head, and darted it deep into its fat side just behind the left fin, and next moment the boat ran aground on the whale's back. ...
— Fighting the Whales • R. M. Ballantyne
... found us occupied in repelling the enemy, some of them having attacked us by the causeway, and others from the ruined houses. I and several other soldiers were at this time up to our middles in the water, engaging the enemy in defence of a brigantine which had run aground, and of which the enemy were endeavouring to gain possession. Just as Sandoval arrived, we got her afloat by a great exertion, after the enemy had slain two of her crew and badly wounded all the rest. The enemy continued ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. IV. • Robert Kerr
... of forty-six guns. They then turned on the tobacco fleet and captured twenty vessels. Six years later nine Dutch warships came in and engaged the English in a desperate battle off Lynnhaven Bay while the tobacco ships scurried for shallow water. Unfortunately nine or ten ran aground and were taken. ...
— Bacon's Rebellion, 1676 • Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker
... strove hard to burst into angry protest, but his tongue refused to utter the harsh words in the face of such a creature of beauty. "I don't understand why it is necessary at all, lady. It is no choice of mine, or my friends, that our schooner is aground and we are ...
— The Pirate Woman • Aylward Edward Dingle
... Slave, who lights the torch, Lest men should slip between the bars, And run aground on Heav'n and scorch To death upon a bank ...
— This Is the End • Stella Benson
... offered by Col. Thorburn (of Virginia), and asking that he be removed from the State, and if retained in service, not to be permitted to command North Carolinians. The Governor, by permission of Gen. Whiting, proceeded down the river to a steamer which had just got in (and was aground) from Europe, laden with supplies for the State; but when attempting to return was stopped by Col. T., who said it was against the rules for any one to pass from the steamer to the city until the expiration of the time prescribed for quarantine. The Governor ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones
... equally destitute of the tokens we were in search of to tell us where we were. Entering also into creek after creek which promised to be the entrance of the bay we were seeking, we advanced merely to find ourselves running aground. ...
— Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark • Mary Wollstonecraft
... all sides. The lightships are simply old hulks, with no special marks by which to distinguish them; and as they themselves look exactly like wrecks, they are not of much assistance in the navigation, which is very confusing, and sometimes perilous. Once we very nearly ran aground, but discovered just in time that the vessel we were steering for with confidence was only a wreck, on a dangerous shoal, and that the lightship itself was further ahead. The yacht was immediately put about, and we just skirted ...
— A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam' • Annie Allnut Brassey
... longer, the crew hoisted the lateen sail, and Yellow Handkerchief steered down toward the mouth of San Rafael Creek. The tide was getting lower, and he had difficulty in escaping the mud-banks. I was hoping he would run aground, but he succeeded in making the Bay ...
— Tales of the Fish Patrol • Jack London
... John Massey heartily. "Just be careful you don't go aground on the bars. The river is shallow for this time of year, though it can be pretty fierce when the ...
— The Windy Hill • Cornelia Meigs
... archipelagos of Guaitecas and Guayneco, still farther to the south, where they are eaten by the natives, who are said to acquire so rank an odour from the use of this food that it is necessary to keep them to leeward. Whales sometimes run aground among these islands but are greatly more numerous farther to the south. They have probably retired from this part of the coast in consequence of being persecuted, as ambergris was formerly found in great abundance on these shores, but ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 5 • Robert Kerr
... sea-battle was already won. For to right and left the second line, or those vessels that still remained, had retired, and were bearing away southward. Some five or six of the first line, that we afterwards overhauled had run aground for safety in L'Ancresse Bay; and the remnant, about twenty ships in all, drifted with shattered and broken masts and rigging on to the rocks, on ...
— The Fall Of The Grand Sarrasin • William J. Ferrar
... Wise Man," the author of the Book of Proverbs, was led away into sin and eternal disgrace. In fact, it matters not what we know, if we are not led of the Spirit we shall come to grief. The more deeply a ship is laden, if she gets aground, the more likely she is to become a wreck. It takes the wisest of men to make the fool Solomon became. Perhaps the most serious aspect of this story is, that it was not while the king was young, but when grey-headed, that he wandered ...
— Broken Bread - from an Evangelist's Wallet • Thomas Champness
... the gunboat "Covadonga"—both small and weak ships—engaged the Peruvian heavy ironclads "Huascar" and "Independencia"; after a hot fight the "Huascar" under Miguel Grau sank the "Esmeralda" under Arturo Piat, who was killed, but Carlos Condell in the "Covadonga" manoeuvred the "Independencia" aground and shelled her into a complete wreck. The Chileans now gave up the blockade and concentrated all their efforts on the destruction of the "Huascar," while the allies organized a field army in the neighbourhood of Tacna and a large ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 2 - "Chicago, University of" to "Chiton" • Various
... I couldn't make it out, and I apologise. But a man's nerves go all at once sometimes—can't help himself, you know. Mine did once when I was in the nigger-catching business in the Solomon Islands. Natives opened fire on us when our boats were aground in a creek, and some of our men got hit. I wasn't a bit scared of a smack from a bullet, but when I got a scratch on my hand from an arrow, I dropped in a blue funk, and acted like a cur. Knew it was ...
— By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories • Louis Becke
... are!" he said to himself. "If the pilot were not on board, I should begin to think they had run the Eulalie aground." ...
— Thelma • Marie Corelli
... river, they found a Mandan chief, who, with some of his men, was on a hunting excursion. As they proceeded, several parties of Mandans, both on foot and on horseback, approached the shore to view them. The vessels here got aground several times, among the sand-bars and rocks. In this part of their voyage they saw two Europeans, belonging to the Hudson's Bay company. These men had arrived about nine days before, to trade ...
— Travels in North America, From Modern Writers • William Bingley
... but, as he was about to clutch his splendid prize, it escaped him, for the Spaniards—finding that they would be captured—made haste to run the Saint Philip, and several of her sister ships, aground on the sand. ...
— Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea • Charles H. L. Johnston
... third objection, the watermen are not so public-spirited, they live only from hand to mouth, though not one of them but finds the inconvenience of these hills, every day being obliged to go a great way round about for fear of running aground; insomuch that in a few years the navigation of that part of the river will be entirely obstructed. Nevertheless, every one of these gentlemen- watermen hopes it will last his time, and so they all cry, The devil take the hindmost. But yet I judge it highly necessary that ...
— Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business • Daniel Defoe
... be shallow in here," remarked Fred. "That's probably why they don't come in any closer. Look out for going aground, Sam." ...
— The Go Ahead Boys and the Treasure Cave • Ross Kay
... to go aground by boat. He fretted. The only emergency equipment he could possibly need was a heat-suit. He doubted the urgency of that. But he packed some clothing for indoors, and then defiantly included his specbook and ...
— Sand Doom • William Fitzgerald Jenkins
... the right. According to tradition, the adventurous Jans, who had been voyaging up the Hudson, became confused and turned to the right, following the creek with the idea that it was the main river, until his boat ran aground. As a result of this accident he chose the spot to set up a trading post. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War Peekskill was an important post of the Continental Army; and in Sept. 1777, the village was sacked and burned by the British. To the north of Peekskill are Manito Mts., ...
— The Greatest Highway in the World • Anonymous
... water around the Chancellor, though with a full freight she draws about fifteen. It was remarkable how far she had been carried on to the shelf of rock, but the number of times that she had touched the bottom before she finally ran aground left us no doubt that she had been lifted up and borne along on the top of an enormous wave. She now lies with her stern considerably higher than her bows, a position which renders walking upon the deck anything but an easy matter, moreover as the tide receded she heeled ...
— The Survivors of the Chancellor • Jules Verne
... ground-tackle between port and port. One of our hands, too, had unluckily fallen upon a half of an old newspaper which contained an account of the passage, through the straits, of a Boston brig, called, I think, the Peruvian, in which she lost every cable and anchor she had, got aground twice, and arrived at Valparaiso in distress. This was set off against the account of the A. J. Donelson, and led us to look forward with less confidence to the passage, especially as no one on board had ever been through, and the captain had no very perfect charts. However, we were spared any ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana
... of a railroad bibliopolist. The gradual waste of my cigar accomplished itself with an easy and gentle expenditure of breath. My book was of the dullest, yet had a sort of sluggish flow, like that of a stream in which your boat is as often aground as afloat. Had there been a more impetuous rush, a more absorbing passion of the narrative, I should the sooner have struggled out of its uneasy current, and have given myself up to the swell and subsidence of my thoughts. But, as it was, the torpid life of the book served as ...
— The Blithedale Romance • Nathaniel Hawthorne
... up early in order that we might lose no time in getting under weigh; I was much surprised however to find both boats aground, and when the day had dawned sufficiently to enable me to distinguish surrounding objects I could not make out the sea, but found that we were lodged in a regular mangrove bush. I walked a few yards to get a clear view to the westward and found that we were at least a mile inland, so far does the ...
— Journals Of Two Expeditions Of Discovery In North-West And Western Australia, Vol. 1 (of 2) • George Grey
... never put forth for the darkening of counsel. But each extreme was eager to sustain the unreason of the opposite extreme as the only alternative of its own unreason, and so, what with contrary gusts from North and South, they fell into a place where two seas met and ran the ship aground. The attempts made from 1836 to 1840, by stretching to the utmost the authority of the General Conference and the bishops, for the suppression of "modern abolitionism" in the church (without saying what they meant by the phrase) had their natural effect: the antislavery sentiment in ...
— A History of American Christianity • Leonard Woolsey Bacon
... it is. You have been dealing with these fellows as though they were honest men." He then explained that there is no security against imposition for travellers who pay their passage in advance, in case the boat gets aground, or the captain pleases to detain them an unreasonable time; that the "old stagers" never show their money till the trip is up; and much more useful information for the voyager on ...
— Hatchie, the Guardian Slave; or, The Heiress of Bellevue • Warren T. Ashton
... stern.[247] Then there is the large boat near, and its echo beyond it. That echo is divided into two again, and each of those two smaller boats has two figures in it; while two figures are also sitting together on the great rudder that lies half in the water, and half aground. Then, finally, the great mass of Ehrenbreitstein, which appears at first to have no answering form, has almost its facsimile in the bank on which the girl is sitting; this bank is as absolutely essential to the completion of the picture as any object in the whole series. All this is ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin
... up the anchors, they committed [the ship] to the sea, loosening at the same time the fastenings of the rudder and raising the top sail to the wind, they bore down towards the shore. [27:41]And falling on a place with a sea on both sides, they run the ship aground. And the bow being firmly fixed, remained immoveable; and the stern was ...
— The New Testament • Various
... thought that Bishop Eahlstan stood by me as in the old days, and minded me of words that I spoke long ago, words that were taught me by a wise woman, who showed me how to trap the Danes, when the tide left their ships aground, so that they had no retreat. Then he said, 'Even again at this time shall victory be when the tide is low.' And I said that Somerset and Dorset would fail not at this time. Then said he, 'Somerset and Devon.' Then it seemed that he blessed me ...
— King Alfred's Viking - A Story of the First English Fleet • Charles W. Whistler
... Calais harbour. The Lord Admiral Howard at once bore down upon her in the Ark, but the water proved too shallow. The London ship Margaret and John followed suit and, although of less tonnage than the Ark, got aground. Richard Tomson sent home a graphic account of the exploit that followed.(1673) Both ships sent out long boats to capture the rich prize as she lay stuck fast upon the harbour bar. Tomson himself formed one of the little band of volunteers. The boats were ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume I • Reginald R. Sharpe
... shape, with a brick bottom, and was perhaps about thirty feet in diameter. It was shallow near the shore, and in one or two places were large pots in which water-lilies were planted, these forming dangerous reefs on which an unskilful captain of a model craft might well run his vessel aground. Brian wound up the engines of the Fury, keeping his finger on the screw to prevent it starting off with a whiz; then, adjusting the rudder, he lowered the "destroyer" ...
— Under Padlock and Seal • Charles Harold Avery
... before our enemies. We have no merchant marine to develop these hardy sailors who once made our flag the glory of the sea. We have a little navy, commanded chiefly by political pets who couldn't sail a catboat into New York harbor without getting aground or falling overboard. We have an army, about the size of a comic opera company, officered largely by society swells who cannot even play good poker, are powerful only on dress parade. We have a few militia companies, scattered from Sunrise to Lake Chance, composed chiefly ...
— Volume 12 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann
... one on board; it had apparently drifted from its anchorage. There was not a breath of air; the little bark came floating along on the glassy stream, wheeling about with the eddies. At length it ran aground, almost at the foot of the rock on which I was seated. I descended to the margin of the river, and drawing the bark to shore, admired its light and elegant proportions and the taste with which it was fitted up. The benches were covered with cushions, and its ...
— The Crayon Papers • Washington Irving
... such persuasive words, and Becky soon yielded to the little siren who was luring her out of her safe, small pool into the deeper water that looks so blue and smooth till the venturesome paper boats get into the swift eddies, or run aground upon the ...
— A Garland for Girls • Louisa May Alcott
... made. Just watch him to-day— See him trying to play. He's come back for blue skies. But they're in a new guise— Winter's here, all is gray, The birds are away, The meadows are brown, The leaves lie aground, And the gay brook that wound With a swirling and whirling Of waters, is furling Its bosom in ice. And he hasn't the price, With all of his gold, To buy what he sold. He knows now the cost Of the spring-time he lost, Of the flowers he tossed ...
— The Art of Public Speaking • Dale Carnagey (AKA Dale Carnegie) and J. Berg Esenwein
... neck; and all the while one of the natives, who sat in the canoe with us, kept licking the blood from the wound with his tongue. Meantime, a number of women who had been left in the ship had jumped overboard, and were swimming to the shore, after having cut her cable, so that she drifted, and ran aground on the bar near the mouth of the river. The natives had not sense to shake the reefs out of the sails, but had chopped them off along the yards with their tomahawks, leaving ...
— John Rutherford, the White Chief • George Lillie Craik
... larger size in the centre, and one of them, the Bellerophon, was dismasted and drifted off. Later two of the missing ships of Nelson's squadron and the Leander came into action; the Culloden having struck on a rock off the island, remained aground. By that time the French van was crushed, and the battle raged round the centre. Brueys fell, and soon afterwards his ship, the Orient (120), caught fire. Her assailants poured so fierce a storm of shot upon her that her crew could not get the fire under. The summer night was lightened by ...
— The Political History of England - Vol. X. • William Hunt
... "She's aground, sir," cried the coxswain. "A rope has caught our rudder—unship it, man," answered the captain, who was as cool as if about to go ...
— Paul Gerrard - The Cabin Boy • W.H.G. Kingston
... five others appeared in quick succession as the Giraffe was cutting rapidly through the smooth water. We were going at full speed when, with a shock that threw nearly every one on board off his feet, the steamer was brought up "all standing" and hard and fast aground! The nearest blockader was fearfully close to us, and all seemed lost. We had struck upon "the Lump," a small sandy knoll two or three miles outside the bar with deep water on both sides of it. That knoll was the "rock ahead" during the whole war, of the blockade-runners, ...
— The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner • John Wilkinson
... unimportant engagements between the two fleets, an action of importance occurred which disclosed the deep differences between Jones and his Russian allies. The Capitan Pacha attempted to attack the Russian fleet, but one of his ships ran aground, and the others anchored. Jones saw his opportunity and ordered a general attack on the confused Turkish fleet, which cut anchor and fled, with Jones in pursuit. The Wolodimer, Jones's flagship, steered straight ...
— Paul Jones • Hutchins Hapgood
... with great precision: At length they found mere cannonade alone By no means would produce the town's submission, And made a signal to retreat at one. One bark blew up, a second near the works Running aground, was ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron
... water up the little stretch of beach. This was his moment of danger. Any one looking through one of the cabin windows might see his dark figure. Yet Thornton hesitated. The wind was blowing strongly. Surely the pretty houseboat would not drift out into dangerous waters. Surely she would come aground a few miles further down the shore. The minutes were precious. Alfred Thornton quickly cut the second rope. Then, without glancing behind him to see the result of his deed, he ran with all speed to his ...
— Madge Morton's Secret • Amy D. V. Chalmers
... the employment of pilots; few of whom were to be found, as they naturally favored the enemy, and had gone away. The river was drawing near the time of lowest water, and the flag-ship herself got aground under very critical circumstances, having had to take out her coal and shot, and had even begun on her guns, two of which were out when she floated off. The term of enlistment of many of the crews had ended and they were clamoring for their discharge, and the unhealthy ...
— The Gulf and Inland Waters - The Navy in the Civil War. Volume 3. • A. T. Mahan
... Good! Now listen! Do not—repeat, do not!—acknowledge this call or respond to any call from anyone else! There is a drastic situation aground. You must not—repeat, must not—fall into the hands of the people now occupying Government Center. Go into orbit. We will try to seize the spaceport so you can be landed. But do not acknowledge this call or respond to any answer from anyone ...
— The Hate Disease • William Fitzgerald Jenkins
... lord high admiral drove upon the sands several of the sluggard vessels of the Armada which the fire-ships had failed to drive out to sea. For several hours he engaged the great galliasse under the direct command of Admiral Moncada, which was aground upon the sands. The vessel was captured and Moncada slain, and the English admiral hastened ...
— Ten Great Events in History • James Johonnot
... it! Had I endeavored this before eating I could have slipped through, scarcely touching either side. But now I am scraped like a pig for the feast. Baste me, friend Benteen, but I can move neither forward nor back in this accursed place; I am full aground in the centre, and can never hope to progress ...
— Prisoners of Chance - The Story of What Befell Geoffrey Benteen, Borderman, - through His Love for a Lady of France • Randall Parrish
... boys to work your cargo. And if you give them a few tons to carry, like as not they'll 'dash' you to a case of 'fizz.' And meanwhile the English captain is lying outside the bar tooting his whistle and wanting to know if you think he's going to run his ship aground for a few bags of rotten kernels. And he can't see, and the people at home can't see, why the Germans are crowding ...
— The Congo and Coasts of Africa • Richard Harding Davis
... a light craft, and can swim there well enough. If she'd been aground, she'd ha' been ashore in pieces hours ago. But whether she'll ride it out, God only knows, ...
— The Seaboard Parish Vol. 3 • George MacDonald
... waters to such a degree, that the ship was tossed violently to and fro, to the great alarm of the mariners; at the same time he raised a mighty wind, which drove the ship into the harbour of Crissa, where she ran aground. The terrified sailors dared not set foot on shore; but Apollo, under the form of a vigorous youth, stepped down to the vessel, revealed himself in his true character, and informed them that it ...
— Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome • E.M. Berens
... stock-still on the bank. The raft sped so violently towards the opposite shore that it ran aground with a violent shock to all on board. The Count, standing on the very edge, was shaken into the stream; and as he fell, a mass of ice swept by and struck off his head, and sent it flying like ...
— Farewell • Honore de Balzac
... was not fordable, as those officers found—Sir Henry at the head of them, who was always the first to charge—who attempted to wade it. Death by shot, by drowning, by catching my death of cold, I had braved before I returned to my wife; and our frigate being aground for a time and got off with difficulty, was agreeably cannonaded by the enemy until she ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray
... said I, springing out of bed, and sinking up to my knees in water. "Bring a light, Tailtackle, one of the planks must have started, and as the tide is rising, get out the boats, and put the wounded into them. Don't be alarmed men, the vessel is aground, and as it is nearly high tide, there is ...
— Hair Breadth Escapes - Perilous incidents in the lives of sailors and travelers - in Japan, Cuba, East Indies, etc., etc. • T. S. Arthur
... so rapidly, as things got well afire, that, when about four hundred feet from the bridge and the nearest building, I was obliged to lie down behind a log that was aground in about two feet of water, and by going under water now and then, and holding my head close to the water behind the log, I managed to breathe. There were a dozen others behind the same log. If I had succeeded ...
— Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel • Ignatius Donnelly
... cuisine, manners, steamboats, the turf, fashions, the chase; voluble on the burdensomeness of the slave to his master, the blessedness of the master to his slave; but sore to the touch on politics and religion—with their religion quite innocently adjusted to their politics—and promptly going hard aground on any allusion to history, travel, the poets, statistics, architecture, ornithology, art, music, myths, memoirs, Europe, Asia, Africa, homoeopathy, or phrenology. It entertained the players just to see how many things the happy lovers knew nothing about and to hear them state ...
— Gideon's Band - A Tale of the Mississippi • George W. Cable
... forest, looked like a temporary encampment; passed under the Pacific Railroad; and then for twelve miles followed the windings of the Truckee River, a clear, rushing, mountain stream, in which immense pine logs had gone aground not to be floated off till the next freshet, a loud-tongued, rollicking stream of ice-cold water, on whose banks no ferns or trailers hang, and which leaves no ...
— A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains • Isabella L. Bird
... was giving him the least clue to the truth, but considered herself speaking with more than Delphic prudence. She rather liked to coast along the shores of her trouble and see how near she could approach without running aground; but she struck ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 30, April, 1860 • Various
... men were gone from them ashore. Then took they two of the three ships at the outer part of the port, and killed the men, and the other ship escaped; in that also the men were killed except five; they got away because the other ships were aground. They also were aground very disadvantageously, three lay aground on that side of the deep on which the Danish ships were aground, and all the rest upon the other side, so that no one of them could get to the ...
— A Handbook of the English Language • Robert Gordon Latham
... vessel met them with a broadside which sank four at once, and the other two were riddled by shell from Hotchkiss revolving cannon from the decks of the Spaniard; their machinery was crippled, and they drifted helplessly out to sea. Of the others, some ran aground on the bank, some were sunk, and not one succeeded in exploding her torpedo near a Spanish vessel. The "Alarm" planted a shell from her bow-rifle, at close range, squarely into the stern of the "Zaragoza," piercing the armor and killing a dozen men, besides ...
— Stories by American Authors, Volume 5 • Various
... Caesar an accounting will demand Should this frail craft be wrecked or run aground, For he doth wish to cast it soon adrift With crew well drilled ...
— 'A Comedy of Errors' in Seven Acts • Spokeshave (AKA Old Fogy)
... little dropping will wear away rock, if it only keep at it. The thing that you would not think of, if it occurred only twice a year, becomes an intolerable burden when it happens twice a day. This is where husbands and wives run aground. They take too much for granted. If they would but see that they have something to gain, something to save, as well as something to enjoy, it would be better for them; but they proceed on the assumption ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, Number 59, September, 1862 • Various
... a number of people on the shore, both from the coast and from inland. The country-people must have come down to see whether the water was wet! The vessel had gone aground and lay rolling on the reef; the people on board had managed her like asses, said the fishermen, but she was no Russian, but a Lap vessel. The waves went right over her from end to end, and the crew had climbed into the rigging, where they hung gesticulating ...
— Pelle the Conqueror, Complete • Martin Andersen Nexo
... the shore not to be able to cast a glance towards the Aimable, and to say to his lieutenants, as he saw the vessel drifting near shoal water, "If she keeps on in that course, she will soon be aground." Still, no time was to be lost. The parley with the Indians did not hinder them long, and soon they were on the way towards the village whither the captive had been taken. Just as they entered ...
— The Junior Classics • Various
... the last movement of the corporal did not swamp the boat, was simply that it was aground on one of the flats; and the figure which had alarmed the conscience-stricken corporal, was nothing more than the outside beacon of a weir for catching fish, being a thin post with a cross bar to it, certainly not unlike Smallbones ...
— Snarleyyow • Captain Frederick Marryat
... among the breakers, tossed from side to side, the sport of every wind of passion; contesting hands were on the tiller ropes. The craft yawed and jerked in its course, a spectacle for men to weep over, and devils to rejoice in; ran aground on quicksands, tore and tangled its cordage, rent the planking, and at the end of a cruise of as many months as it should have lasted years, it lay a hopeless wreck on the grim bar ...
— Princess • Mary Greenway McClelland
... from the mainland. He sounded round his vessel, and discovered that she was fixed from forward to aft, and that, without lightening her, there was no chance of getting her off. He then turned to where the Admiral's ship lay aground, and found that, to all appearance, she was in even a worse plight, as the rocks to leeward of her were above the water, and she was much more exposed, should bad weather come on. Never, perhaps, was there a scene more cheerless and appalling: a dark ...
— The Phantom Ship • Captain Frederick Marryat
... a voyage of exploration into far and unknown regions. The river just above Sherman's Bridge, in time of flood "when the wind blows freshly on a raw March day, heaving up the surface into dark and sober billows," was like Lake Huron, "and you may run aground on Cranberry Island," and "get as good a freezing there as anywhere on the North-west coast." He said that most of the phenomena described in Kane's voyages could be observed ...
— Initial Studies in American Letters • Henry A. Beers
... over the Second and Fourteenth of the legions, which he had brought in ships, to Publius Vitellius to conduct them by land, that his fleet, thus lightened, might sail on the shoally sea, or run aground with safety when the tide ebbed. Vitellius at first marched without interruption while the ground was dry or the tide flowed within bounds. Presently the ocean beginning to swell by the action of ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 03 • Various
... "Fast aground till a squall comes along and breaks you up," he said, as if speaking to the vessel. "It's all there was left for either of us to do, for we are death, it seems, to every one ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Volume XIII, No. 51: November 12, 1892 • Various
... out at 3 in the morning, and brought up at 5, in a narrow muddy creek on the island of Sidhee. The waters retired along channels scooped several fathoms deep in black mud, leaving our vessel aground six or seven feet below the top of the bank, and soon afterwards there was no water to be seen; as far as the eye could reach, all was a glistening oozy mud, except the bleak level surfaces of the islands, on which ...
— Himalayan Journals (Complete) • J. D. Hooker
... circumstance which at first made him regret he had not used more expedition on the way. But he immediately recollected it might he for the best that he was left behind. This proved to be the case; for the vessel with which he would have sailed, meeting with contrary winds and dark weather, ran aground, and was obliged to put back, and when J.Y. left the Elbe she was lying ...
— Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel • John Yeardley
... boy? What care I for the ship, sailor, I never was aboard her. Be she afloat, or be she aground, Sinking or swimming, I'll be bound. Her owners can afford her! I say, how's my John? 'Every man on board went down, Every man ...
— The Children's Garland from the Best Poets • Various
... er—smiling pity. And evidently they appreciated the smiles for they gave us a serenade in return for them. Aunt Grace did not know their history, so she invited them in, thinking they were just ordinary schoolboys. It is home mission work run aground." ...
— Prudence Says So • Ethel Hueston
... Ohio, where Louisville now stands, requiring with the best luck, a week or ten days—the shore on either hand would be closely scanned for signs of unusual fertility, or for the opening of some small stream suggesting a good place to "settle." When a spot was picked out the boat would be run aground, the boards of the cabin erected skilfully into a hut, and a new outpost of civilization would be established. As these settlements multiplied, and the course of emigration to the west and southwest increased, river life became full of variety and ...
— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot
... seaward, which, being the greater ship, and of burthen 120 tons, was yet foremost upon the breach, keeping so ill watch, that they knew not the danger, before they felt the same, too late to recover it; for presently the Admiral struck aground, and has soon after her stern and hinder parts beaten in pieces; whereupon the rest (that is to say, the frigate, in which was the General, and the Golden Hind) cast about east-south-east, bearing to the south, even for our lives, into the wind's eye, because ...
— Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland • Edward Hayes
... and died on the deck of the ship, which was not quite ready to strike her flag. In the course of the forenoon, however, it became obvious to Bossu that further resistance was idle. The ships were aground near a hostile coast, his own fleet was hopelessly dispersed, three quarters of his crew were dead or disabled, while the vessels with which he was engaged were constantly recruited by boats from the shore, which brought ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... resuming its original order, four deep, and bore down upon the Athenians. Eleven of Phormio's triremes succeeded in clearing the strait, and getting into the open waters in the direction of Naupactus; but the remaining nine were overtaken and driven aground, and their crews, except those who escaped by swimming, were put to the sword. Some of these vessels were towed off as prizes by the Peloponnesians, and one they captured with all her crew. The rest were saved by the valour of the Messenian soldiers, who had ...
— Stories From Thucydides • H. L. Havell
... a council straight. Brief and bitter the debate: "Here's the English at our heels; would you have them take in tow All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and bow, For a prize to Plymouth Sound? Better run the ships aground!" (Ended Damfreville his speech). Not a minute more to wait! "Let the Captains all and each Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the beach! ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 8 • Charles H. Sylvester
... her crew which had survived the battle were drowned. Only the two cruisers Isla de Cuba and Isla de Luzon remained in fighting condition, but the position was so hopeless that Admiral Montojo ordered them to run aground in ...
— The Philippine Islands • John Foreman
... old woman, feller," Tim refused, and hopped aground unassisted. McKay and Knowlton followed. But Jose, after moving languidly forward and contemplating the sharp slope, hesitated ...
— The Pathless Trail • Arthur O. (Arthur Olney) Friel
... even these waters were infested, though, not so thickly, by savage reptiles. I ordered sufficient water let into the diving-tanks to lower us about a foot, and then I ran the bow slowly toward the shore, confident that should we run aground, we still had sufficient lifting force to free us when the water should be pumped out of the tanks; but the bow nosed its way gently into the reeds and touched the shore with ...
— The Land That Time Forgot • Edgar Rice Burroughs
... spoken save on board the vessel, where those upon deck seemed from time to time to be doing something with poles to keep her from getting aground ...
— Devon Boys - A Tale of the North Shore • George Manville Fenn
... We were wet to the skin before we could get at the rain-cloaks on which we were sitting, but our boatmen remained as dry as ever, to our mystification. In the middle of the storm, our unworthy vessel sprung a fresh leak, the water poured in, and we were forced to run aground on a sand-bank for repairs. These were speedily effected, with a wad of paper, by Piotr, who, with a towel cast about his head and shoulders, looked more like an apostle ...
— Russian Rambles • Isabel F. Hapgood
... The boat is aground. Mountains of surf dash on the rocky coast, seeking to tear the frail craft to pieces. In the perspective behold the sea of many years, studded with the crafts of those friends of my former good ship Prosperity. How many I see that owe to me, some only a pennant, many a sail ...
— The Romance and Tragedy • William Ingraham Russell
... and that one word conveys more than any other word can express. For a few years we may glide along the tide of a single life, but it is a tide that flows but once, and, what is still worse, it ebbs faster than it flows, and leaves many a hapless voyager aground. I am one, you see, that has experienced the fall I am describing. I have lost my tide; it passed by while every throb of my heart was on the wing for the salvation of America, and I have now, as contentedly as I can, made myself a little tower of walls ...
— Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest • Robert Green Ingersoll |
