APiiiL.] VOYAGE TO ENGLAND. 
505 
we got disentangled without sustaining material injury. 
About one in the morning of the 8th all were waked 
from sleep by a sudden and violent gust of wind, which 
carried away the gaff, or upper boom of our mainsail, 
and caused the overthrow of chairs, &c. in our cabin. 
It lasted only about five minutes. 
On the 10th, about eleven, A.M. the Commodore 
hung out a signal, that he supposed a storm was ap- 
proaching from the N.W. for which all the ships pre- 
pared. About noon, as we were preparing for worship 
on the Lord's day, the storm commenced, and blew 
very hard, especially after sun-set. Being in a sound 
slenp during the night, I heard nothing of the storm, 
though it had occasionally blown with great violence. 
We were lying-to, under only one reefed topsail, and 
the sea running very high. 
At five in the afternoon the captain called me on 
deck, to witness before the day light was gone the 
awful grandeur of the ocean, and the rolHng of the 
ships around us. A more majestic and sublime scene 
than such a storm in the midst of the ocean, surely 
cannot be seen. Though twenty large ships surround- 
ed us, yet frequently not one of them was visible from 
our deck, in consequence of the great height of the 
intervening waves. The sea seemed full of rage and 
fury, threatening to destroy all who had dared to ven- 
ture on its surface. I viewed the scene with extreme 
interest, as an exhibition of the great Creator's power, 
3 T 
