18S9. 



BEAGLE ALMOST UPSET. 



87 



assumed a singularly hard, and rolled or tufted appearance, 

 like great bales of black cotton, and altered their forms so 

 rapidly, that I ordered sail to be shortened, and the topsails to 

 be furled, leaving set only a small new foresail. The water was 

 smooth, and, not being deep, there was none of that agitated 

 swell usually noticed before a storm in the great ocean. 



Gusts of hot wind came off the nearest land, at intervals of 

 about a minute. The fore-topsail was just furled, and the 

 men down from aloft, the main-topsail in the gaskets, but the 

 men still on the yard, when a furious blast from the north-west 

 struck the ship. The helm was put up, and she paid oif fast ; 

 yet the wind changed still more quickly, and blew so heavily 

 from south-west, that the foresail split to ribands, and the 

 ship was thrown almost on her beam-ends, and no longer 

 answered her helm. The main-topsail was instantly blown 

 loose out of the men's hands, whose lives were in imminent 

 danger ; the fore- topsail blew adrift out of the gaskets ; the 

 mainsail blew away out of the gear ; the lee hammock-netting 

 was under water ; and the vessel apparently capsizing, when 

 topmasts and jib-boom went, close to the caps, and she 

 righted considerably. Both anchors were cut away (for the 

 land was under our lee), and a cable veered upon each, which 

 brought her head to wind, and upright. The heaviest rush of 

 wind had then passed, but it was still blowing a hard gale, 

 and the Beagle was pitching her forecastle into the short high 

 waves which had risen. As the depth of water was small, and 

 the ground tenacious clay, both anchors held firmly, and our 

 utmost exertions were immediately directed towards clearing 

 the wreck, and saving the remains of our broken spars and 

 tattered sails. Had we suffered in no other way, I should have 

 felt joy at having escaped so well, instead of the deep regret 

 occasioned by the loss of two seamen, whose lives, it seemed, 

 might have been spared to this day had I anchored and struck 

 topmasts, instead of keeping under sail in hopes of entering 

 Maldonado before the pampero began. 



When the main-topsail blew away from the men, who strug- 



