Sentence:  I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the <WSD>offing</WSD>, came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, which I called "The Island of Despair"; all the rest of the ship's company being drowned, and myself almost dead. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The area of the sea in which a ship can be seen in the distance from land, excluding the parts nearest the shore, and beyond the anchoring ground.