He replied: “Yes, she is a bit skittish to-night.”
What it seemed to me was, that the ship would try to lie down and go to sleep on her right side; and then, before she had given that position a fair trial, would suddenly change her mind, and think she could do it better on her left. At the moment the man came up to me she was trying to stand on her head; and before he had finished speaking she had given up this attempt, in which, however, she had very nearly succeeded, and had, apparently, decided to now play at getting out of the water altogether.
And this is what he called being a “bit skittish!”
Seafaring people talk like this, because they are silly, and do not know any better. It is no use being angry with them.
