The 11th, At Noon, Having A Very Good Observation, I Found Myself To
The Northward Of My Reckoning, And Thence Concluded That We Had A
Current Setting North-West, Or Rather More Westerly, As The Land
Lies.
From that time to the next morning we had fair clear weather,
and a fine moderate gale from south-east to east-by-north:
But at
daybreak the clouds began to fly, and it lightened very much in the
east, south-east, and north-east. At sun-rising, the sky looked
very red in the east near the horizon, and there were many black
clouds both to the south and north of it. About a quarter of an
hour after the sun was up, there was a squall to the windward of us;
when on sudden one of our men on the forecastle called out that he
saw something astern, but could not tell what: I looked out for it,
and immediately saw a spout beginning to work within a quarter of a
mile of us, exactly in the wind: we presently put right before it.
It came very swiftly, whirling the water up in a pillar about six or
seven yards high. As yet I could not see any pendulous cloud, from
whence it might come, and was in hopes it would soon lose its force.
In four or five minutes' time it came within a cable's length of us,
and passed away to leeward, and then I saw a long pale stream coming
down to the whirling water.
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