352 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



shaped a course well clear, as I supposed, but suffi- 

 ciently to windward so that if the wind should sud- 

 denly chop to northwest, I should fetch Boston Bay 

 without beating. 



On the 14th, at 9 A. m., the weather became hazy, with 

 a moderate breeze from the southward; sounded, and 

 verified my position by the nature and depth of sound- 

 ings: was under easy sail, keeping the deep-sea lead go- 

 ing: when near noon, finding the water shoaling, and 

 imagining in the absence of sights that we were sea- 

 ward of Kan tucket Shoals, I hauled up, but still we 

 shoaled; at noon the ship slightly grazed the bottom, 

 and the boatswain, an old shellback of threescore years, 

 fainted in the chains. As soon as we again reached 

 deep water, the best bower was let go and sixty fath- 

 oms of cable veered out; but his Lordship barely tight- 

 ened the chain when it parted, and off we went in as 

 dense a fog as is ever seen on the shoals. We had 

 evidently grounded on the last quarter of flood tide, and 

 the tide ebbing bewildered us by the rips, which to a 

 stranger simulated breakers. Here we were in un- 

 known waters, unable to discover anything a cable's 

 length ahead, and with an increasing gale. .Our ener- 

 gies were spent in dodging the breakers, backing, fill- 

 ing, tacking, and going at large, until about midnight, 

 when the lookouts sang out " Breakers all round!" 

 We reduced our canvas even from the shortened stage, 

 and amidst deafening thunder and vivid lightning, we 

 struck very heavily, and to our consternation we had 

 only one and one half fathoms water midships! Then 

 occurred a scene which bailies description. Incipient 

 mutiny was not the least feature, but it would involve 



