This Evening many large bunches of sea weed came by the ship; we caught some of it with hooks, it was of an immense size every leaf 4 feet long and the stalk about twelve, the footstalk of each leaf was swelld into a long air vessel. Mr Gore tells me that he has seen this weed grow quite to the top of the water in 12 fathom, if so the swelld footstalks are probably the trumpet grass or weed of the Cape of Good Hope; we describd it however as it appeard and calld it Fucus Giganteus. Here were also this Evening large quantities of a small bird somewhat like Mother Careys chickens but rather larger and grey on the back, and plenty of Albatrosses indeed we have seen more or less of them every day for some time. [3]

Voyaging Accounts