26 REV. GEORGE PATTERSON 



live to come so great a distance through such mountains of broken water. I got a rope 

 prepared to assist in preserving the people's lives, should the vessel be able to reach the 

 beach. When she approached within three miles of the land she appeared to be in the 

 heaviest breakers, and we could plainly perceive mountain waves on each side of her, that 

 would raise their heads as high as the top of her masts and pitch over and fall with the 

 weight of hundreds of tons, either of which would have been sutBcient to have smashed her 

 to atoms. But, miraculous as it maj' appear, not one of them touched her. At one moment 

 you could just perceive the heads of her masts between the mountains of water that were 

 ■ smashing and breaking to pieces all around, l>ut not permitted to hurt her ; at the next 

 moment you would see her on the top of a tremendous wave, which ai)peared like certain 

 destruction to her ; at another you would see a mountain sea rising up before her, and 

 breaking all to fragments in her path, but when she arrived at tlie spot the surface was 

 smooth as glass. When she arrived within one mile of shore she had to pass over what we 

 call the Outer Bay, where every sea broke from the bottom, and our greatest anxiety for the 

 safety of the vessel was at this point. The sea was then l)reaking with tremendous violence, 

 but she passed through untouched — the sea became smooth before her, and she left a shining 

 track behind." . 



" When she approached a little nearer we could see one man lashed to the helm, and 

 two men forward lashed by each of the foreslirouds, and by each man a large cask standing 

 on end. We could also see that the two men were making great exertions with their arms, 

 as if throwing something up in the wind. The vessel had now passed the most dangerous 

 place, and her safety seemed certain. Another half mile lirought her to the beach, and her 

 bow struck the sand." . . . 



"The schooner was the ' Arno,' Capt. Higgins, with twelve men, from Quero Bank, 

 where they had been fishing. They left the liank at the commencement of the gale. He 

 had lost all his headsails, when at daylight this morning he made the land dead under his 

 lee, with the gale blowing right on shore. The vessel having no headsail, he could do 

 nothing with her on a wind. He let go his anchor in twenty fathoms of water, paid out 

 three hundred fathoms of hemp cable, and brought the vessel head to wind. In that tre- 

 mendous sea he held on till noon, when, seeing no prospect of the gale abating, he cut his 

 cable and put the vessel before the wind, preferring to run her on shore before night to 

 riding there and foundering at her anchor. He lashed himself to the helm, sent all his men 

 below but two, and nailed up the cabin doors. He had two large casks placed near the fore- 

 shrouds and lashed there. He then directed his two best men to station themselves there, 

 and lash themselves firmlj' to the casks, which were partly filled with blubber and oil from 

 the fish. They had each a wooden ladle about two feet long, and with those ladles they 

 dipped up the blubber and oil and threw it up in the air as high as they could. The great 

 violence of the wind carried it fixr to leeward, and, spreading over the water, made the 

 surface smooth before her, and left, a shining path behind, and although the sea would rise 

 very high, yet the top of it was smooth and never broke where the oil was. It was raging, 

 pitching and breaking close to her on each side, but not a barrel of water fell upon her deck 

 the whole distance." 



Capt. Darby seems undoubtedly to have been a man of great capacity and immense 

 energy, and the duties of his position he seems to have discharged in an efficient manner. 

 But various complaints regarding the way in which matters were managed reached the ears 



