April! violent> and much rain and hail, or rather fragments of half
melted iGe : ac intervals alfo we had thunder and lightning,
' more dreadful than all the paft, and a fea which frequently
laid the whole veflel under water.
From the time o f our clearing the Streight, and during
our paflage along this, coaft, we faw a great number o f fea
birds, particularly albatroffes, gannets, fheerwaters, and a
thick lumpifh bird, about as big as a large pigeon, which
the failors call a Cape o f Good Hope hen : they are o f a dark
brown or blackilh colour, and are therefore fometimes
called the black g u l l : we law alfo a great many pintado
birds, o f nearly the fame fize, which are prettily fpotted
with black and white, and conftantly on the wing, though
they frequently appear as i f they were walking upon the
water, like the peterels,' to which failors have given the
name o f Mother Carey’s chickens; and we faw alfo many
o f thefe.
Monday *;. . l n the evening o f Monday the 27th, which was very dark,
as we were flanding-to theweftward under our comrfes, and
a clofe reefed top-fail, the wind, in a hard fquall, fuddenly
fhifted, and took the veflel right a-head; the . violent jerk
with which the fails were inftantly thrown a-back, was very
near carrying the mafts away by the board, and overfetting
the lh ip : the fails being at this time extremely wet, and the
gale in the higheft degree violent, they clung fo fall to the
mafts and rigging, that it was fcarcely poffible to get them
either up or down; yet by the dexterous activity o f our
people, we got the main-fail up, clewed ,up the main top-
fail, and got the Ihip’s head round without receiving much
damage. The violence o f the windxontinued feveral hours
but before morning it veered again to the N. \V. and con-
Vednef. 29. tinued in that quarter till the afternoon o f the '29th, when
6 it
it died away, and we had a dead calm for fix hours. During *767-
this time we had a high fea, which ran in great confufion c-—--— |
from all quarters, and broke againft the lhip in a ltrange
manner, making her .roll with To violent and fudden a
motion, that I expefted every moment to lofe our mafts.
The wind afterwards fprung up at W. S. W. which was fair,,
and we carried all the fail we could fet to make the moft o f
it. It blew very hard in this direction, with heavy rain for
a few hours, but by noon on the 30th, it returned to its Thurtky 3°;
ufual quarter, the N. W • and was- fo violent as to bring us-
again under our courfes, there being at the fame time a prodigious
fwell, which frequently broke over us. A t five ^May..
o’clock the next morning, as we were lying to under the
reefed main-fail and balanced mizen, a vaft fea broke over
the quarter where the fhip’s oars were lafhed, and carried
away fix o f them, with the weather-cloth; it alfo broke the.
mizen gaff clofe where the fail was reefed, and the iron-
{(■ rap o f one of. the main dead eyes, laying the whole veflel,
for fome time under water •’ we were however fortunate
enough to haul up the main fail' without fplitting, though-,
it blew a hurricane, and a deluge of rain, dr rather of half
melted ice, at the fame time poured, down upon us. The
wind foon after Ihifted again from N.W. to S.W. and for
about an hour blew, if poffible, ftronger than ever. This
wind made the lhip come up with her head right againft the
vaft fea which the north weft wind had raifed, and at every
pitch which flie made againft it, the end o f the bowfprit was
under water, and the furge broke over the forecaftle as far
aft as the main-maft, in the fame manner as it would have
broke over a rock, fo that there was the grcateft reafon to
apprehend Ihe would founder. With all her defeats flic was,
indeed a good fea boat, and i f Ihe had not, it would hqve
been impoffible for her to have outlived this ftorm, in which,