During it the skiff being towed behind was quickly hauled aboard, and available ropes and cables were used to undergird the boat to keep it from splitting apart.

What terrorized the crew was that the gale was blowing them toward the Syrtis quicksands on the coast of Libya, North Africa. The crew worked furiously to turn the boat and hence avoid shipwreck.

Seaman Edwin Smith commented concerning this critical part of the voyage in the March 1947 issue of The Rudder:

“In this instance they would lay the ship to on the starboard tack, that is, with the right-hand side facing the wind. She would thus be pointing about north, or away from the African coast and the Syrtis; and any headway she might make while hove-to would be carrying her on her course towards Italy, while her broadside motion (drift) would be, generally speaking, to the westward.