What's wrong with this sentence? (A passage from Heart of Darkness) -2
The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.
This is a passage from Heart of Darkness.
Solution 1:
What's wrong with this sentence?
Nothing... “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves, ….” (Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene III, L. 140-141).
The things that are “wrong” with it are those that you have not encountered before. There is nothing wrong with the use of English:
Flood = the flood tide; the incoming tide; the rising tide. (The converse is “the ebb”)
“To make” is used in an unusual but valid sense. It is the intransitive form of the verb to make.
OED:
To make: 58. a. intransitive. Nautical. Of the flood or ebb tide: to begin to flow or ebb respectively; (also) to be in progress. Hence, of the tide: to flow towards the land; to rise; (also) to flow in a specified direction. Of wind: to increase in strength.
1840 F. Marryat Poor Jack l. 365 The flood tide made.
1883 R. L. Stevenson Treasure Island iv. xvii. 135 The ebb was now making.
1975 R. Guy You may know them as Sea Urchins 13 The tide made higher—as was the saying—and the tide made lower a couple of times each twenty-four hours within half a gunshot of his house.
"and being bound down the river,":
Bound (adjective)
2. Prepared or purposing to go, starting, directing one's course, destined. With for (to, into obsolete), or adverb of motion. Phrases, homeward bound, outward bound.
1801 R. Southey Thalaba II. x. 226 You see a Traveller, Bound upon hard adventure.
1849 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 635 The ships which were bound for New England were crowded.
Solution 2:
to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.
"to come to" is also a nautical term. Usually the expression is "to heave to" but this relates to the wind direction. In this case the direction of the tide is the deciding factor so the boat will need to "come to".
Note that in neither case does the verb "heave to" or "come to" require an object.