PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
IS 
courses,top-gallant-sails, and royals, and fitted the top-sails for 
bending; employed the carpenters in caulking our water-ways, 
and the crew in various useful jobs. 
5th, lat. 33° 54' 20" N.> long. 56° 14' W. by account, varia¬ 
tion 5° westerly, the winds light and the weather fine, bent oui v 
new top-sail; kept the crew employed in various useful jobs. 
From the 5th to the 7th, nothing remarkable. The weather con¬ 
tinuing fine, took advantage to get the ship in the best state for 
service 
On the afternoon of the 8th, blowing fresh and very squally, dis* 
covered a sail to the E.N.E.; hauled up for her in chace; at 5 dis¬ 
covered,her to be a ship, under her top-sails, and courses hauled up, 
bearing the appearance of a sloop of war. Being about 5 miles to 
windward of her, and a heavy squall coming on, took in top-gallant- 
sails, and two reefs in our top-sails, preparatory to getting the ship 
ready for action, and beat to quarters. On the squall clearing off ? 
discovered the chace before the wind under a press of sail; made 
all sail in chace, but lost sight of her after dark, and at 8 o’clock 
gave over the pursuit and stood on our course. From ‘various 
causes, I am induced to believe her to be the American sloop of 
war Wasp, commanded by captain Jacob Jones, who sailed from 
the Delaware a few days before us. 
The whole of the 9th, fresh gales and a heavy sea from the 
westward. 
On the 10th, ascertained our longitude by the distance between 
the sun and moon’s centres to be 48° 30' 35" west; and on com¬ 
paring it with our dead-reckoning, find a difference of 5 degrees; 
which arose from a mistake in the marking of our log-line, four 
knots being marked where three should have been. 
The 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th, the weather remarkably 
pleasant, the winds light and variable, inclinable to the eastward $ 
nothing of any mportance took place during that period; find our 
sick list decreasing daily, the crew in general improving in their 
appearance and conduct, which in general has been extremely good; 
but while we lay in the Delaware, the ease of procuring rum on 
board had produced some little irregularities, which required a 
few days at sea to correct. I now divided the crew into three 
