Streight of Magellan to Cape Monday
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seven, we had a very hard squall, and the weather being then exceedingly thick, we suddenly perceived a reef of rocks close under our lee bow, upon which the sea broke very high: we had but just time to tack clear of them, and if the ship had missed stays, every soul on board must inevitably have perished. These rocks lie at a great distance from the south shore, and are about three leagues to the north of Cape Upright. At nine, the weather cleared a little, and we saw the entrance of Long Reach, upon which we bore away, keeping nearest the south shore, in hopes of finding an anchoring-place. At ten, we had strong gales and thick weather, with hard rain, and at noon, we were again abreast of Cape Monday, but could find no anchoring-place, which, however, we continued to seek, still steering along the south shore, and were soon after joined by the Tamar, who had been six or seven leagues to the eastward of us all night. At six in the evening, we anchored in a deep bay, about three leagues to the eastward of Cape Monday: we let go the anchor in five and twenty fathom, near an island in the bottom of the bay; but before we could bring up the ship, we were driven off, and the anchor took the ground in about fifty fathom. The extream points of the bay bore from N.W. to N.E. by E. and the island W. ½ S.: we veered to a whole cable, and the anchor was about a cable’s length from the nearest shore. In the night, we had fresh gales westerly, with sudden squalls and hard rain; but in the morning, the weather became more moderate, though it was still thick, and the rain continued. As a great swell set into this place, and broke very high upon the rocks, near which we lay, I got up the anchor, and warped the ship to a bank where the Tamar was riding: we let go our anchor in fourteen fathom, and moored with the stream anchor to the eastward, in forty-five fathom. In the bottom of this
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Voyaging Accounts |  |
© Derived from Volume I of the London 1773 Edition: National Library of Australia call no. FERG 7243, page 71, 2004
Published by kind permission of the Library
To cite this page use: https://paulturnbull.org/project/southseas/journals/hv01/107.html