HEAVY GALE. 
357 
get in our canvas sufficiently, the “ leach-rope” 
of the main topsail gave way, and the sail in¬ 
stantly split. 
When the gale reached its height, the scene 
around us assumed a sublime aspect. The ship 
scudding before the tempest, attained a velocity 
of ten knots, which, accustomed as we had long 
been to smooth seas and slow removes, occasioned 
a peculiar excitation of feeling. The sea, however, 
rose to such an alarming height, that the pleasant 
sensations commonly excited by rapid motion, 
were considerably suppressed. Wave after wave 
followed us in rapid and varied succession, break¬ 
ing and roaring along both sides of the ship, and 
occasionally throwing their sprays over the deck. 
The heavens were shrouded in a murky veil; the 
view of the horizon was intercepted, and the 
lower atmosphere obscured by the scum of the 
breaking waves. 
Just as we had got the main topsail replaced, 
a heavy sea struck the rudder and broke the “ til- 
lar ropes.” Scudding as we were at the time with 
the wind on the quarter, the ship necessarily 
“ broached to but, such was her excellent adap¬ 
tation and buoyancy, she did not receive a drop of 
water on board, under circumstances in which hun¬ 
dreds of ships have been dismasted and many have 
foundered. We lay to under a close-re.cfed main 
