14 GALE. [CHAP. I. 



The morning after we set sail we found ourselves off Cork, in 

 the midst of the experimental squadron of steamers and ships of 

 the line, commanded by Sir Hyde Parker. They had been out 

 several weeks performing their nautical evolutions, and we had 

 the amusement of passing close to the largest ships of the fleet 

 the St. Vincent and the Superb. Our captain fired a salute as 

 we went under the batteries of the last of these the Admiral s 

 ship. 



After sailing at the rate of more than 200 miles a day for 

 four days, our progress was retarded, Sept. 8, by an equinoctial 

 gale, which came in from the southwest, and. blowing for twelve 

 hours, raised such a sea, that we only made four miles an hour. 



Another gale of still greater violence came on six days after 

 ward, on the night of the 14th, when the ship was running at 

 the rate of ten and a half miles an hour, along the eastern edge 

 of the Great Baifk. The wind had been N.E., when suddenly, 

 and in an instant, it blew from the N.W. I was in my berth 

 below when this squall struck the vessel, and supposed that we 

 had run upon some floating timber or an iceberg. We felt the 

 ship heel as if falling over. On inquiry next day of the captain, 

 and the only passenger who was on deck at the time of this con 

 cussion, I learnt that they saw a cloud of white foam advancing 

 toward them on the surface of the sea from the N.W., like a 

 line of surf on a beach. The captain had time to get the sails 

 hauled half up, all except the top-sail, which was torn to pieces, 

 when the advancing line of foam reached the ship, at which 

 moment there was some vivid lightning, which the passenger 

 thought was the cause of the blow resembling the stroke of a 

 solid body against the steamer. When the wind first filled the 

 sails in an opposite direction, it seemed as if the masts must give 

 way. All hands had been called on deck, and the men went 

 into the rigging to furl the sails with the utmost order and cool 

 ness. In a few minutes the wind had veered rapidly round the 

 compass, from N.W. to N.E., and then went on to blow from 

 this, the old quarter again, a perfect hurricane for twenty-three 

 hours ; the spray being carried mast high, so that there was a 

 complete mingling of sea and sky. We could never tell whether 



