OF THE GRIPER. 81 



for it beat down the gale, and brought with it 1824. 

 a light air from the northward. At nine P.M. Sept. 

 the water had deepened to five fathoms. The 

 ship kept off the ground all night, and our 

 exhausted crew obtained some broken rest. 



At four A.M. on the 2nd, on weighing the 

 best bower, we found it had lost a fluke, and by 

 eight we had weighed the two other anchors 

 and the stream, which were found uninjured. 

 The land was now more clearly visible, and 

 the highest surf I ever saw was still breaking 

 on it, and on some shoals about half a mile 

 from the shore. Not a single green patch 

 could be seen on the flat shingle beach, and 

 our sense of deliverance was doubly felt 

 from the conviction that if any of us should 

 have lived to reach the shore, the most 

 wretched death by starvation would have been 

 inevitable. In standing out from our anchor- 

 age, which in humble gratitude for our deli- 

 very, I named the ^' Bay of God's Mercy,'* 

 we saw the buoy of the anchor we had lost in 

 ten fathoms, and weighed it by the buoy rope, 

 losing therefore only one bower anchor. We 

 now hoisted the long boat in, and an occasional 

 glimpse of the sun enabled us to determine the 

 situation of our recent anchorage, which was 

 in lat. 63° 35' 48", long. 86° 32' 00". The 



