THE OCEAN VOYAGE 123 



us to drift all day with but one small bark sail and the 

 well reefed mizzen in a sea truly mountainous and con- 

 stantly breaking over our deck. Another heavy wave 

 broke our mizzen mast about eleven o'clock in the fore- 

 noon and the water came rushing down the steerage in 

 such quantities that our lower bunks on our starboard 

 side were completely under water. The violence of the 

 waves was terrible and the ship suffered to such an ex- 

 tent, causing so much water to come in my own bunk, that 

 mattress and blanket were thoroughly saturated, our 

 deck being sadly in need of repairs. 



One can only obtain a faint idea of the terrific force 

 of this hurricane, for such I can call it, without scruple, 

 when iTelate the fact of our having on board an iron bar, 

 four inches thick and twelve feet in length, which, as it 

 was lying flat on deck, was suddenly carried away as if it 

 had been nothing but a feather. 



Our barometer stood all day 5'" below storm, or at 25" 

 7'". At last, toward sunset, the storm abated so that we 

 were able to set topsail again. The next day— Friday— 

 we found ourselves in a snow-bod, which had fallen during 

 the night, and even at noon there was plenty of it; the 

 sun, though bright, had been powerless to melt it as the 

 cold remained piercing all day with a S. S. W. wind. We 

 kept West by South under well reefed sails. I can very 

 well make a division and call this the second Cape storm, 

 which had so far subsided that we were able to slightly 

 loosen the sails by five o'clock of the same afternoon. We 

 had in all ninety-nine hours of storm which though vary- 

 ing in severity, had actually raged all this time, a fact 

 which is even a rare occurrence in this storm-beaten lati- 

 tude. Saturday, the thirteenth, we had quite a severe 

 North wind and rain, the air, however, being less cold 

 than on the previous day. The sea was still exceedingly 

 rough and the waves broke over our deck as before. We 

 continued Southwest to Southwest by West as the wind 

 would permit us. 



The weather remained thus somewhat bearable until 

 about half-past ten in the evening when, without the least 



