CAPE CLEAR GALE. 27 



CHAPTER IV. 



On Soundings English Small Craft Harbor of Liverpool. 



Sunday, May 25th. 



A T sunset yesterday the mate went to the royal yard to look 

 ^T" for land, but could not see it. By our reckoning, we were 

 off Mizzen Head, a point to the westward of Cape Clear, steer- 

 ing east by south, fresh wind and rising, going nine knots, thick 

 weather and rain. Several gannets (a kind of goose with white 

 body and black wings) were about us. Some one said they would 

 probably go to land to spend the night, and there was pleasure 

 in being so made to realize our vicinity to it. Several vessels 

 were in sight, all running inside us, and steering northeast. We 

 thought our captain over anxious to give Cape Clear a wide berth, 

 and were sorry not to make the land before dark. After sunset 

 it grew thicker, and the wind, which had been increasing all day, 

 by midnight was a gale. We got in all sail but the reefed top- 

 sails ; then hove-to, and found bottom in fifty-five fathoms. I 

 was quite satisfied now with the captain's prudence ; the sea was 

 running high, and the crags of Ireland could not be many miles 

 distant. As it was, I felt perfectly safe, and turned in, sleeping 

 soundly till nine o'clock this morning. About an hour later, they 

 made the light on the old Head of Kinsale, where the Albion 



