7a 



PORTER S JOURNAL* 



der it impossible to attempt it, without hazarding the de- 

 struction of the ship, and the loss of every life on board. 

 The whole of the 1 st and 2d 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 

 severe 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 enabled to weather the gale. We had ship- 

 ped several heavy seas, that would have proved destructive 

 to almost any other ship ; but, to us, they were attended 

 with 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 be- 

 ing 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-stanchions burst in, and the ship perfectly deluged 

 and water-logged, immediately after this tremendous shock. 

 The gale however soon after began 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 pulmonary complaint, departed 

 this life, and was this morning committed 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 endan- 

 gered the safety of the ship. 



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

 ers, the boatswain of the Nocton, through excess of alarm, 

 exclaimed, that the ship's broadside was stove in, and that 

 she was sinking. This alarm was greatly calculated to in- 

 crease the^ears of those below, who, from the immense 

 torrent of water that was rushing down the hatchways, had 

 reason to believe the truth of bis assertion. Many who wei-e 



