Challenge 312/119: What is the most dangerous thing you've ever done? (252 words)
The most dangerous thing I've ever done is sail my ship into a hurricane. The circumstances of why I sailed my ship into that hurricane are well-known by this point....I've addressed it before and won't do so again here.
The dangers of life at sea are myriad. I've confronted war, piracy and disease. Yet Nature is something entirely unto itself. Going into battle with nature is a tougher fight than can be offered by a pirate ship or another navy's fleet. Nature does not yield or retreat; it cannot be placated with a treaty. Our cannons, our gunpowder, our swords are powerless against the fierce winds and rough seas that a hurricane produces. The hurricane I sailed the Dauntless into reduced it to mere driftwood in a short time. There was no question of considering a strategy to avoid being hit as one might do in a battle against another ship, it quickly became a matter of escaping with our lives; of course, many of the crew did not survive. It was not shots or cannon fire that killed them; it was the sea, who can take lives even more swiftly than either of those weapons can.
Hurricanes and storms are unavoidable in the West Indies; all I can do is keep an eye upon the horizon and hope that I don't sail into inclement weather. But I will never again attempt to sail directly through such weather. I value my life, and the lives of my officers and crew even moreso.
The dangers of life at sea are myriad. I've confronted war, piracy and disease. Yet Nature is something entirely unto itself. Going into battle with nature is a tougher fight than can be offered by a pirate ship or another navy's fleet. Nature does not yield or retreat; it cannot be placated with a treaty. Our cannons, our gunpowder, our swords are powerless against the fierce winds and rough seas that a hurricane produces. The hurricane I sailed the Dauntless into reduced it to mere driftwood in a short time. There was no question of considering a strategy to avoid being hit as one might do in a battle against another ship, it quickly became a matter of escaping with our lives; of course, many of the crew did not survive. It was not shots or cannon fire that killed them; it was the sea, who can take lives even more swiftly than either of those weapons can.
Hurricanes and storms are unavoidable in the West Indies; all I can do is keep an eye upon the horizon and hope that I don't sail into inclement weather. But I will never again attempt to sail directly through such weather. I value my life, and the lives of my officers and crew even moreso.