Page:A history of the military transactions of the British nation in Indostan.djvu/733

Book XIII. do so too; but the signal guns were not heard, and the ships, in obedience to the discipline of the navy, rode until their cables parted with the strain, when they with much difficulty got before the wind, none able to set more than a single sail, and none without splitting several. Every minute increased the storm until twelve, by which time the wind had veered from the N. w. where it began, to the N. E.: when it suddenly fell stark calm with thick haze all round. In a few minutes the wind flew up from the south-east, and came at once in full strength with much greater fury than it had blown from the other quarter.

By the delay of not getting early under sail whilst the storm was from the north, most of the ships lost the opportunity of gaining sufficient sea-room before it came on from the south-east. The first gust of this wind laid the Panther on her beams, and the sea breaking over her, Captain Affleck cut away the mizen; and this not answering, the main-mast likewise, which broke below the upper deck, tore it up, and continued some time encumbering over the side of the ship without going clear off into the sea, until the shock of a wave sent it away. The ship then righted, the reefed foresail stood, and brought her back into fourteen fathom water, when she dropped the sheet anchor; but not bringing up, which means turning to ride with her head to the anchor, they cut away the fore-mast, which carried away the bowsprit, when the ship came round; and thus rode out the storm. The America, Med way, and Falmouth, cutting away all their masts on the different necessities with the same prudence, rode it out likewise, after they had anchored again nearly in the same soundings as the Panther.

The Newcastle, the Queenboroug frigate, and the Protector fire-ship, returning with the s. E. storm, mistook their soundings, and drove towards the shore 4, without knowing where they were, or attempting to anchor. The roaring of the surf was not to be distinguished in the general tumult of the elements; and the danger was not discovered until it was too late, and the three ships came ashore about two miles to the south of Pondicherry;