i?i the Pacific Ocean. 



15 



every iife on board. The whole of the 1st and £d of March, 

 we anxiously hoped for a change, but in vain ; our fatigues had 

 been constant and excessive ; many had been severely bruised by 

 being thrown, by the violent jerks of the ship, down the hatch- 

 ways, and I was particularly unfortunate, in receiving three se- 

 vere falls, which at length disabled me from going on deck. 

 The gale had already blown three days without abating : the 

 ship had resisted its violence to the astonishment of all, without 

 having received any considerable injury : and we began to hope, 

 from her buoyancy, and other good qualities, we should be ena- 

 bled to weather the gale. We had shipped several heavy seas, 

 that would have proved destructive to almost any other ship ; 

 but, to us, they were attended v/ith no other inconveniences, than 

 the momentary alarm they excited, and that arising from 

 the immense quantity of water, which forced its way into 

 every part of the vessel, and kept every thing afloat between 

 decks. However, about three o'clock of the morning of the 3d, 

 the watch only being on deck, an enormous sea broke over the 

 ship, and for an instant destroyed every hope. Our gun-deck 

 ports were burst in ; both boats on the quarters stove ; our spare 

 spars washed from the chains ; our head- rails washed away, ham- 

 mock-staunchions burst in, and the ship perfectly deluged and 

 water-logged, immediately after this tremendous shock. The 

 gale however soon after begun to abate, and in the morning we 

 were enabled to set our reefed foresail. In the height of the gale, 

 Lewis Price, a marine, who had long been confined with a pul- 

 monary complaint, departed this life, and was this morning 

 comVnitted to the deep ; but the violence of the sea was such, that 

 the crew could not be permitted to come on deck, to attend the 

 ceremony of his burial, as their weight would have strained and 

 endangered the safety of the ship. 



When this last sea broke on board us, one of the prisoners, 

 the boatswain of the Nocton, through excess of alarm, ex- 

 claimed, that the ship's broadside was stove in, and that she was 

 sinking. This alarm was greatly calculated to increase the fears 

 of those below, who, from the immense torrent of water that was 

 rushing down the hatchways, had reason to believe the truth of 

 his assertion. Many who were washed from the spar to the gun- 

 deck, ^nd from their hammocks, and did not know the extent 

 of the injury, were also greatly alarmed; but the men at the 

 wheel, and some others, who were enabled by a strong grasp to 

 keep their stations, distinguished themselves by their coolness and 

 activity after the shock. I took this opportunity of advancing 

 them one grade, by filling up the vacancies occasioned by those 

 sent in prizes, and those who were left at St. Catharines ; rebuk- 

 ing, at the same time, the others for their timidity. 



