WRECK OF THE CHALLENGER. 8 



end we carried our close-reefed main-topsails 

 and reefed foresail ; the wind being about two 

 points abaft the beam ; the ship behaving re- 

 markably well, but lurching deeply 5 and on one 

 occasion she made so heavy a plunge, that a 

 long lee sea came in over all, staving in the lee 

 quarter gallery, moving the sheet-anchor, float- 

 ing our spars in the lee channels, and actually 

 wetting the legs of several persons who were 

 securing their holdfast under the weather bul- 

 warks. We looked on this as a hint to batten 

 down our main-deck hatchways ; to take the 

 canvass off her ; and, as night was closing in, the 

 main-topsail and foresail were furled, and the 

 ship eventually hove- to, under the fore and main- 

 staysails ; the latter having been, in our first 

 attempt to set it, blown to leeward by the car- 

 rying away of our staysail stay. In this breeze 

 a heavy sea struck the bows and cutwater, 

 and with a most singular result, for it carried 

 away the crown of our figure-head from the 

 forehead upwards ; and the ominous remark of 

 the person who reported the circumstance to 

 the officer of the watch was, " Sir, she has lost 

 her brains." The weather continued stormy, 

 with heavy squalls of hail, with little intermis- 



B 2 



