Still, However, We Had A Fine,
Strong Breeze, And Kept On Our Way, Under As Much Sail As Our
Ship Would Bear.
Toward the middle of the week, the wind hauled
to the southward, which brought us upon a taught bowline, made the
ship meet, nearly head on, the heavy swell which rolled from that
direction; and there was something not at all encouraging in the
manner in which she met it.
Being so deep and heavy, she wanted
the buoyancy which should have carried her over the seas, and she
dropped heavily into them, the water washing over the decks; and
every now and then, when an unusually large sea met her fairly
upon the bows, she struck it with a sound as dead and heavy as
that with which a sledge-hammer falls upon the pile, and took
the whole of it in upon the forecastle, and rising, carried it
aft in the scuppers, washing the rigging off the pins, and carrying
along with it everything which was loose on deck. She had been
acting in this way all of our forenoon watch below; as we could
tell by the washing of the water over our heads, and the heavy
breaking of the seas against her bows, (with a sound as though
she were striking against a rock,) only the thickness of the
plank from our heads, as we lay in our berths, which are directly
against the bows. At eight bells, the watch was called, and we
came on deck, one hand going aft to take the wheel, and another
going to the galley to get the grub for dinner.
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