100 FROM COPENHAGEN TO ENGLAND. 



noon, and not more favourable, and at 5 P.M., in- 

 creased to a violent storm. I only had the top- 

 sails reefed, though the wind was so strong that 

 they ought to have been taken in; but as the 

 storm was blowing directly to the land, we dared 

 not carry too little sail, as the danger of ship- 

 wreck would then be inevitable. The dark 

 autumnal night had already set in, when we 

 found ourselves between Eddystone light-house, 

 and the entrance of Plymouth harbour. The 

 storm continued to rage, the waves rose in moun- 

 tains, and the Rurick, which could no longer keep 

 her place, drove slowly back towards the shore. 

 It was so uncommonly dark that there was as 

 much danger in sailing back to the harbour as in 

 staying in the channel ; I chose the latter, in the 

 hope of keeping the ship off shore till day-break. 

 We exerted all our skill, and tried to keep up our 

 courage. The thought of shipwreck, almost at 

 the first step towards our remote destination, was 

 intolerable. The storm continued without abate- 

 ment all the night ; I tried to keep the ship as 

 close to the Eddystone light-house as possible, 

 but we were always driven further from it to the 

 shore; at last we had only a glimpse of it now and 

 then through the intense darkness, which was a 

 sign that we must be near the shore. On the 26th, 

 at 5 A.M., as the violence of the storm was still in- 

 creasing, the ship was put about; a furious squall of 

 wind broke our wing-transom, (a beam which holds 



