M WIND DISCIPLINE BISCAY. 1831. 



result proved that we were right ; for although the Beagle had 

 a fair wind all the way to the Canary Islands, vessels which 

 sailed from England only one day after her, and steered more 

 westerly, lost the east wind very soon, and were retarded by 

 another succession of strong and contrary gales, similar to 

 those which had detained us a whole month. 



Individual misconduct, arising out of harbour irregularities, 

 obliged me to have recourse to harsh measures before we had 

 been two days at sea ; but every naval officer knows the abso- 

 lute necessity of a certain degree of what inexperienced per- 

 sons might think unnecessary coercion, when a ship is recently 

 commissioned. Hating, abhorring corporal punishment, I am 

 nevertheless fully aware that there are too many coarse natures 

 which cannot be restrained without it, (to the degree required 

 on board a ship,) not to have a thorough conviction that it 

 could only be dispensed with, by sacrificing a great deal of 

 discipline and consequent efficiency. " Certainty of punish- 

 ment, without severity," was a maxim of the humane and wise 

 Beccaria ; which, with our own adage about a timely ' stitch,' 

 is extremely applicable to the conduct of affairs on board a 

 ship, where so much often depends upon immediate decision, 

 upon instant and implicit obedience. 



We crossed the Bay of Biscay without a gale ; though the 

 heavy rolling of a vessel so deep in the water, running before 

 a strong wind, was almost as disagreeable as the effects of one 

 would have been. After witnessing high seas and storms in 

 various parts of the world, I can call to mind only two or 

 three that exceeded what I have myself experienced, or what 

 I have heard described, as having been sometimes encountered 

 in this famed bay. 



Why should the sea be higher, or more dangerous, in the 

 bay of Biscay, than it is in the middle of the Atlantic, or 

 elsewhere ? — Is it really so ? — are questions often asked. 



I believe that there is a shorter, higher, and consequently 

 worse sea, in and near the Bay of Biscay, than is often 

 found in other places, and attribute it to the effect of im- 

 mense Atlantic waves, rolling into a deep bight, or bay, where 



