In this place we remained till Friday the 20th, when about noon the clouds gathered very thick to the westward, and before one it blew a storm, with such rain and hail as we had scarcely ever seen. We immediately struck the yards and top-masts, and having run out two hausers to a rock, we hove the ship up to it: we then let go the small bower, and veered away, and brought both cables a-head; at the same time we carried out two more hausers, and made them fast to two other rocks, making use of every expedient in our power to keep the ship steady. The gale continued to increase till six o’clock in the evening, and to our great astonishment the sea broke quite over the fore-castle in upon the quarter-deck, which, considering the narrowness of the Streight, and the smallness of the bay in which we were stationed, might well have been thought impossible. Our danger here was very great, for if the cables had parted, as we could not run out with a sail, and as we had not room to bring the ship up with any other anchor, we must have been dashed to pieces in a few minutes, and in such a situation it is highly probable that every foul would immediately have perished; however, by eight o’clock the gale was become some-what more moderate, and gradually decreasing during the night, we had tolerable weather the next morning. Upon heaving the anchor, we had the satisfaction to find that our cable was found, though our hausers were much rubbed by the rocks, notwithstanding they were parcelled with old hammacoes, and other things. The first thing I did after performing the necessary operations about the ship, was to send a boat to the Swallow to enquire how she had fared during the gale: the boat returned with an account that she had felt but

Voyaging Accounts