71 
set was clear ancl everything betokened a calm and quiet night. 
At about 10, p.m., the swell began to increase without any ap¬ 
parent cause, and so rapidly as to awaken my anxiety, but being- 
in such deep water I thought the vessel was sufficiently distant 
from the bar not to be exposed to any breakers. As the flood 
continued to make the swell increased, and by midnight we were 
enveloped in fog, without a breath of air, and the ship rode over 
the rollers that were now becoming very heavy, causing her to 
pitch violently. There was, however, no break to them, but as 
ample scope of cable had been given, the ship occasionally 
swung broadside too, when the heavy pitching was exchanged to 
rolling, so deep as to endanger our masts. At 2, a.m., a breaker 
was heard outside of us passing in with the roar of a surf, after 
which they became constant and really awful. The ship might 
now be said to be riding among breakers of gigantic size; they 
rushed onward with such tremenduous roar and violence that 
as each wave -was heard approaching, it became a source of ap¬ 
prehension until it had safely passed; such was its force that 
when it struck the ship the chain cable would surge, the ring- 
stoppers parted, and some few fathoms of the cable escaped. 
As the time of high water approached, the roar of these im¬ 
mense breakers was constant. The ship was as if tempest-tossed, 
and our situation became at each moment one of great solici¬ 
tude. The actual danger of wreck was not indeed great, for, 
in the event of parting our cable, the tide would have carried us 
toward the harbor and in deep water, where the rollers would 
have ceased to break; there was no great danger of our drifting 
on the bar, which was a mile or two to. the northward of our 
position. I looked forward with anxiety for the time of high 
water as the period when we should be released from our un¬ 
pleasant situation, not only the change in the course of the tide, 
but also by the cessation of the breakers. Our situation af¬ 
forded me an opportunity of measuring the velocity of the 
waves as they passed the ship, and though the distance was 
short, yet the observations were numerous and gave the velocity 
at from 15 to 18 miles an hour, their height was over 30 feet, 
width from 800 to 1000 feet. At 3.30, A.m., one of these im¬ 
mense breakers struck the ship broad on the bow and broke with 
its full force on board; the cable surged, the stoppers were car¬ 
ried away, and the spar deck swept fore and aft; the boats and 
booms broke adrift, the former being stove and the latter thrown 
