At Four Bells
We Hove The Log, And She Was Going Eleven Knots Fairly; And Had It
Not Been For The Sea From Aft Which Sent The Ship Home, And Threw
Her Continually Off Her Course, The Log Would Have Shown Her To
Have Been Going Much Faster.
I went to the wheel with a young
fellow from the Kennebec, who was a good helmsman; and for two
hours we had our hands full.
A few minutes showed us that our
monkey-jackets must come off; and, cold as it was, we stood in
our shirt-sleeves, in a perspiration; and were glad enough to have
it eight bells, and the wheel relieved. We turned-in and slept
as well as we could, though the sea made a constant roar under
her bows, and washed over the forecastle like a small cataract.
At four o'clock, we were called again. The same sail was still on
the vessel, and the gale, if there was any change, had increased
a little. No attempt was made to take the studding-sail in;
and, indeed, it was too late now. If we had started anything
toward taking it in, either tack or halyards, it would have blown
to pieces, and carried something away with it. The only way now was
to let everything stand, and if the gale went down, well and good;
if not, something must go - the weakest stick or rope first - and
then we could get it in. For more than an hour she was driven on
at such a rate that she seemed actually to crowd the sea into a
heap before her; and the water poured over the spritsail yard as
it would over a dam.
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