4 LEAVE ENGLAND. [1843. 



be found under ordinary breezes, away from the land 

 and out of soundings. The cables, as well as her chain- 

 messenger, should be unbent and below ; all her boats 

 up and stowed, and if provided with chain-topsail-sheets, 

 particularly on the mizen-mast, they should be home. 

 At Falmouth all this was easily provided for (the ' Sama- 

 rang ' had only two brass twenty-four-pounder howitzers 

 on deck), and the ship being secured by hawsers to the 

 mooring buoy was swung to thirty-two points of the 

 compass for the Magnetic Variation, and to sixteen for Dip 

 and Intensity. At other ports I should deem it sufficient 

 to unshackle and pay down the after part of the chain- 

 cable, and to hang the ship " before all " at the bitts all 

 other precautions observed. 



On the evening of the 9th of February, 1843, we 

 slipped our moorings and proceeded to sea. I had de- 

 cided not to touch at any point before reaching the Cape 

 of Good Hope, but strong breezes preventing our making 

 westing, and pressing us almost to the entrance of the 

 Straits of Gibraltar, I determined on nearing the Barbary 

 coast, where I well knew that we should soon experience 

 breezes calculated to facilitate a southerly passage. On the 

 25th of February we passed between the Island of Fuer- 

 taventura (Canaries) and the coast of Africa, where, we 

 took a fair wind. Here, in lat. 27 7' N., long. 14 34' W., 

 we fell in with the wreck of a large vessel which we had 

 observed on our homeward voyage in the ' Sulphur ' off 

 the coast of Portugal, the fore part of her bow timbers 

 and stem still above water. As she was more than two- 

 thirds immersed, and covered, probably, with barnacles 

 (Anatifa /#w),she could not be much affected by the wind. 



