The skipper brings his daughter along on the voyage because he wanted to enjoy her "company." She is, evidently, a very beautiful girl, with eyes as blue as "fairy-flax" and cheeks as rosy as the "dawn of day." Her bosom is as white as "hawthorn buds." She must bring her father a great deal of pleasure. When the ship comes into a terrible storm, the skipper tells her that she should not fear because he is equipped to handle even the roughest winds; he feels quite confident in his ability to keep the ship afloat in even the "'roughest gale.'" Perhaps, then, he felt that the safest place for her was by his side, even though he would be on board the ship: he possesses supreme confidence in his abilities as a seaman. When the storm gets bad, he wraps the girl up in his big sailor's coat and uses a rope to bind her to the mast, to keep her safe. She calls out to him again and again, but he freezes to death at the helm, so he does not answer her. The crew is "swept [...] Like icicles" from the ship's desk as it heads toward a reef called Norman's Woe. The ship is soon damaged by rocks that jut out of the sea and it begins to "stove and s[i]nk." In the morning, a fisherman finds the frozen body of the beautiful girl, still lashed to the mast which is now drifting in the cold waters. Had the skipper been less prideful and not thought that he could best nature, he might have chosen to leave his daughter at home, and she would be safe.