152 CAPTAIN CART WEIGHT'S 



We had the pleasure to hud our uew vessel sail 

 well; and nothing remarkable occurred till the 

 thirty-first. There being then a great head swell, 

 occasioned by preceding strong gales at west; at 

 one in the afternoon we had the misfortune to 

 carry away our main-mast, eight feet above the 

 deck; the fall of which carried away also the 

 boom, larboard cat-head, bumpkin and rail in the 

 waist; together with both top-masts, and the 

 main-top gallant mast. Unfortunately, two good 

 seamen were aloft at the time, both of whom were 

 saved, but very much bruised; particularly one 

 of them. By ten at night we had got all the wreck 

 on board, and found neither yards nor sails dam- 

 aged. We laid the vessel to under the fore-sail, 

 and the rest went to sleep, while Pitkethly and I 

 kept the watch all night. As there was but little 

 wind she rolled, gunwale to, incessantly; and I 

 often thought she would have turned bottom up; 

 for she is well built for that work, and is the most 

 uneasy vessel in a sea that I ever sailed in. She 

 is also of true Hibernian fabric, having a pine 

 bottom, and oak upper works. 



By six o'clock in the evening of the second of 

 June, we had got up jury-masts, such as they 

 were, and then made sail again. 



Saturday J June 4, 1774. By an observation of 

 the sun and moon, we found our longitude to be 

 36° 24' west from London. We saw a gannet;^ 

 a bird which is seldom seen out of soundings; and 

 many sailors affirm that it never is, but they are 



* Gannet or Solan goose, Sula bassana. 



