And when the ship was caught,.... By the wind, snatched up by it, and forcibly carried away:
and could not bear up into the wind; and against it, or look it in the face, as the word signifies; could not ply to windward, the wind being so high and the sea so strong:
we let her drive; about the sea, at pleasure, it being in vain to attempt to get her forward against the wind, or to direct her course.