WIXTER VOYAGJ-: TlUlorail STIIMTS OF MAC; ELLAS 141 



attempt to leave. Some of the officers seemed (lul)iou.s of the 

 X<(rr(((/(insctCs ability to clear the strait, but the captain con- 

 cluded to take the chances, and at noon Cape Pillar was in sight 

 on the port bow. 



With a full head of steam and the fore-and-aft canvas the 

 ship made good way, and at 2 o'clork passed out of the strait 

 and steered directly west for an oiling. But both the wind and 

 sea were now rai)idly rising. At dark it was V)lowing a furious 

 gale from the W.S.W., with one of the most tremendous rolling 

 seas I ever saw. No chance to run back or find an anchoiage 

 in such weather as this. At times the stiualls of wind, sleet, and 

 rain were so thick that we could not see a ship's length. There 

 was nothing to do now but to '• claw off" shore under every inch 

 of storm canvas the vessel could carry, and trust to the engines 

 to help us to gain an oiling. At 8 o'clock that night the hatches 

 fore and aft were securely battened down, a^id the lee rail of the 

 ship was under water as she struggled under sail and steam 

 against the storm and sea. Dimly visible astern, throngli the 

 furious driving squalls, was Cape Pillar, eight miles distant. On 

 the lee beam were the black rocks of Los Apostoles, the ship 

 drifting slowly southward in dangerous proximity to them. The 

 wind veered constantly from point to point, and the sipialls can)e 

 with blinding and terrific force; but everything held well, and 

 the Providence which watches over " poor Jack " sent us a slant 

 of wind which enabled us to make an olHng during that dark, 

 dismal, and anxious night. 



For eight long days and nights this state of things continued, 

 the ship vainly struggling to get to the westward, the s(]ualls of 

 sleet and snow never continuing long enough from southwest 

 to enable the vessel to get north at all. On the eighth day the 

 vessel was nearly as far south as the parallel of Cape Horn,witii 

 a fair prosj»ect of being driven round the cape altogether. There 

 were but a few tons of coal left, and the ship was still 1,"J(X) miles 

 from Valparaiso. AfTiiirs looked blue. Many of the men were 

 ■worn out, exhausted by cold and fatigue; several of the oflicers 

 were in the same condition. 



But all ill fortune, as all good fortune, must at some period 

 come to an end, and so it happened that the next day the wind 

 shifted to the south, and with strong antl favoring gales the t»ld 

 ship went rapidly north under a press of canvas, and in ten days 

 was safely anchored in the harbor of Valparaiso. And so ended 

 the NarracjametCs winter voyage through the Straits of Magellan. 



