About four o’clock we anchored in Port Famine Bay, in 13 fathom, and there being little wind, sent all the boats, and towed in the Swallow and Prince Frederick.

The next morning, the weather being squally, we warped the ship farther into the harbour, and moored her with a cable each way in nine fathom. I then sent a party of men to pitch two large tents in the bottom of the bay, for the sick the wooders, and the sail-makers, who were soon after sent on shore with the surgeon, the gunner, and some midshipmen. Cape St. Anne now bore N.E. by E. distant three quarters of a mile, and Sedger River S. ½ W.

On the 28th we unbent all the sails, and sent them on shore to be repaired, erected tents upon the banks of Sedger River, and sent all the empty casks on shore, with the coopers to trim them, and a mate and ten men to wash and fill them. We also hauled the seine, and caught fish in great plenty: some of them resembled a mullet, but the flesh was very soft; and among them were a few smelts, some of which were twenty inches long, and weighed four and twenty ounces.

During our whole stay in this place, we caught fish enough to furnish one meal a day both for the sick and the well: we found also great plenty of celery and pea-tops, which were boiled with the pease and portable soup: besides these we gathered great quantities of fruit that resembled the cranberry, and the leaves of a shrub somewhat like our thorn, which were remarkably sour. When we arrived, all our people began to look pale and meagre; many had the scurvy to a great degree, and upon others there were manifest signs of its approach: yet in a fortnight there was not

Voyaging Accounts