1833. 



GALES CllITICAL TIME. 



in again ; and although every change of wind was turned to 

 account, as far as possible, but little ground was gained. 



On the 11th we saw that wild-looking height, called York 

 Minster, ' looming ' among driving clouds, and I flattered my- 

 self we should reach an anchorage ; but after tearing through 

 heavy seas, under all the sail we could carry, darkness and a 

 succession of violent squalls, accompanied by hail and rain, 

 obliged me to stand to seaward, after being within a mile of 

 our port. All the next day we were lying-to in a heavy gale 

 — -wearing occasionally. 



At three in the morning of the 13th, the vessel lurched so 

 deeply, and the main-mast bent and quivered so much, that I 

 reluctantly took in the main-topsail (small as it was when close- 

 reefed), leaving set only the storm- try sails (close-reefed) and 

 fore-staysail.* At ten, there was so continued and heavy a 

 rush of wind, that even the diminutive trysails oppressed the 

 vessel too much, and they were still farther reduced. Soon after 

 one, the sea had risen to a great height, and I was anxiously 

 watching the successive waves, when three huge rollers ap- 

 proached, whose size and steepness at once told me that our 

 sea-boat, good as she was, would be sorely tried. Having 

 steerage way, the vessel met and rose over the first unharmed, 

 but, of course, her way was checked ; the second deadened her 

 way completely, throwing her off the wind ; and the third 

 great sea, taking her right a-beam, turned her so far over, that 

 all the lee bulwark, from the cat-head to the stern davit, was 

 two or three feet under water. 



For a moment, our position was critical ; but, like a cask, 

 she rolled back again, though with some feet of water over the 

 whole deck. Had another sea then struck her, the little ship 

 might have been numbered among the many of her class which 

 have disappeared : but the crisis was past — she shook the sea 

 off her through the ports, and was none the worse — excepting 



* I have always succeeded in carrying a close-reefed main-topsail (five 

 reefs) in the Beagle, excepting on this and two other occasions ; but were 

 I again under similar circumstances, I think 1 should try to carry it — 

 even then — for some time longer. 



