138
1766. fears, and we concluded that we muft have flruck either a
^ March. ^ wjla je or a g raI1jpus, from which the fhip was not likely to
Sunday 16. r e c e j v e raUch damage, nor in fadfc did £he receive any.
About this time alfo we had the misfortune to bury our carpenter’s
mate, a very ingenious and diligent young man,
who had never been well after our leaving Batavia.
Tuefday 25. On the 25th, we crofied the equator, in longitude 17° to' W.
and the next morning, Captain Cumming came on board,
and informed me that the Tamar’s three lower rudder braces
on the ftern were broken off, which rendered the rudder
unferviceable. I immediately feat the carpenter on board,
who found the condition of the braces even worfe than had
been reported, fo that the rudder could not poflibly be new
hung ; he therefore went to work upon a machine, like that
which had been fixed to the Ipfwich, and by which lhe was
fleered home: this machine in about five days he completed,
and with fome little alterations of his own, it was an excellent
piece o f work. The Tamar fleered very well with it, but
thinking that it might not be fufficient to fecure her in bad
weather, or upon a lee fhore, I ordered Captain Cumming
to run down to Antigua, that he might there heave the fhip
down, and get the rudder new hung, with a frefh fet of
braces which he had with him for that purpofe; for the
braces with which the fliip went out, being o f iron, were
not expefled to lafl as long as our’s, the lower ones, with
the fheathing, being o f copper.
April. Purfuant to thefe orders, the Tamar parted company with
Tuefday i. on tiie jfl. Qf April, and fleered for the Caribbee Iflands.
When we came into latitude 34° N., longitude 3 5° W. we
had flrong gales from W. S. W. to W. N. W. with a great fea,
which broke over us continually for fix days fucceffively, and
run
run us into latitude 48° N., longitude 14 - W. On the 7th o f If7^-
May, at feven o’clock in the morning, we made the Iflands o f — .--- '
Scilly, having been jufl nine weeks coming from the Cape T1“ rfla}' 7'
o f Good Hope, and fomewhat more than two and twenty
months upon the voyage; the 9th, the fhip came to anchor Saturday 9.
h i the Downs, and on the fame day I.landed at Deal, and; fet
out for London,
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