In sundry of these storms the winds were so fierce and the seas so high, as they could not bear a knot of sail, but were forced to hullig for
divers days together. And in one of them, as they thus lay at hull in a
mighty storm, a lusty young man called John Howland, coming upon
some occasion above the gratings was, with a seele[10]
of the ship,
halyards[ii] which hung overboard and ran out at length. Yet he held his
hold (though he was sundry fathoms under water) till he was hauled
up by the same rope to the brim of the water, and then with a boat
hook and other means got into the ship again and his life saved. And
though he was something ill with it, yet he lived many years after and
became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth. In all
this
voyage there died but one of the passengers, which was William
Butten, a youth, servant to Samuel Fuller, when they drew near the
coast.
Sundry: various or assorted.
Seele: sudden lurch to one side.
Hull: to float without using the sails.
Halyards: ropes for raising a sail.
3. Identify the central idea of this paragraph; add textual evidence to support your central
idea:
Central Idea:
the focus, topic, or point of a text
Textual Evidence:
direct or indirect quotations that support
claims about a piece of writing