Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/149

Rh in gold, and 474 passengers, besides a crew, all told, of 101 souls—total, 575.

She touched at Havana on the 7th Sept. last, and put to sea again at nine o'clock on the morning of the 8th. The ship was apparently in good order, the time seemed propitious, and all hands were in fine health and spirits, for the prospects of a safe and speedy passage home were very cheering. The breeze was from the trade winds quarter at N.E.; but at midnight on the 9th it freshened to a gale, which continued to increase till the forenoon of Friday, Sept. 11th, when it blew up with great violence from N.N.E.

Up to this time the ship behaved admirably; nothing had occurred worthy of note, or in any way calculated to excite suspicions of her prowess, until the forenoon of that day, when it was discovered that she had sprung a leak. The sea was running high; the ship was very much heeled over on her starboard side, and laboured heavily; the leak was so large, that by 1 P.M. the water had risen high enough to extinguish the fires on one side, and stop the engine.

Baling gangs were set to work, the passengers cheerfully assisting, and all hands were sent over on the windward side to trim ship. Being relieved, in a measure, she righted, and the fires were relighted; but there was a very heavy sea on, and, in spite of pumps and baling gangs with their buckets, whips, and barrels, the water gained upon them, until it reached the furnaces and extinguished the fires again, never to be rekindled. This was Friday.

The ship was now at the mercy of the waves, and was wallowing in the trough of the sea like a log. She was a side wheel steamer, with not a little top hamper, and therefore an ugly thing to manage in such a situation. The storm-spencer had been blown away, and the fore-yard was cut down during the night. Attempts were made to get the ship before the wind, but no canvas was stout enough to stand the raging of the storm. After the head sails had been blown away, the Captain ordered the clews of the fore sail to be lashed down to the deck, thinking to hoist the yard up only a little way, show canvas, and get her off; but by the time the yard was well clear of the bulwarks, the sail was taken