THE VOYAGE BACK 



429 



" 26th March. — It is now 12.40 p.m. We have had a 

 satisfactory lunch of roast mutton and treacle duff (toujours 

 mouton !). It is nearly calm, and we have all sail set, and are 

 hurrooshing along at nearly two miles an hour ! 



" I am five days behind in my diary. We have had a pretty 

 sudden gale — the worst ever felt by any one on board, I believe. 

 It culminated about midnight on the 24th or 25th. For several 

 days it had been blowing almost storm-force from the S.W., 

 and so helped us along O.K., though rather too much 

 westerly, and we could only drive along in front of it. With 

 three stormsails (main lower topsail, fore lower topsail and 

 inner jib) we went along for days at five miles an hour. 



" On the evening of the 24th Day and I had First Watch.' 

 I was told off to assist Pennell from 10 to 11 p.m. I put 

 on my paraphernalia and turned out on a wild stormy night, 

 after prolonged bumping in my bunk for three or four hours. 

 It was awful on deck, the ship mostly with her lee scuppers 

 under water, and kept there at a constant heel, with only 

 three small stormsails. We were running before the gale 

 (an unusual experience nowadays, as Penelope cheerily pointed 

 out !), luckily just on our course. To windward (in south- 



