On the 27th she again-made signals of distress, upon which I brought to, and sent the carpenter on board her, who returned with an account that she had sprung a leak under the larboard cheek forward, and that it was impossible to do any thing to it till we had better weather. Upon speaking with Lieutenant Brine, who commanded her, he informed me that his crew were sickly; that the fatigue of working the pumps, and constantly standing by the sails, had worn them down; that their provisions were not good, that they had nothing to drink but water, and that he feared it would be impossible for him to keep company with me except I could spare him some assistance. For the badness of their provision I had no remedy, but I sent on board a carpenter and six seamen to assist in pumping and working the ship.

On the eighth of November, being in latitude 25° 52’ S. longitude 39° 38’ we sounded with 160 fathom, but had no ground: on the ninth, having seen a great number of birds, called albatrosses, we sounded again with 180 fathom, but had no ground.

On the 11th having by signal brought the store-ship under our stern, I sent the carpenter, with proper assistants, on board to stop the leak; but they found that very little could be done: we then compleated our provisions, and those of the Swallow, from her stores, and our staves, iron hoops, and empty oil jars. The next day I sent a carpenter and six seamen to relieve the men that had been sent to assist her on the 27th of October, who, by this time, began to suffer much by their fatigue. Several of her crew having the appearance of the scurvy, I sent

Voyaging Accounts