Robinson Crusoe Goes to Sea

All this while the storm increased, and the sea, which I had never been upon before, went very high, though nothing like what I have seen many times since; no, nor what I saw a few days after; but, such as it was, enough to affect me then, who was but a young sailor, and had never known anything of the matter. I expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought, into the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never rise more; and in this agony of mind I made many vows and resolutions, that if it would please God to spare my life this voyage, if ever I got my foot once on dry land, I would go directly home to my father, and never set it into a ship again, while I lived; that I would take his advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these any more.

Précis
Robinson would later sail in far more dangerous seas than this, and sooner than he could have imagined. But for one who had never been to sea before, it was a profound shock; and while it lasted he made vows that if he came safely to land, he would never go to sea again.