Page:Autobiography of Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes.djvu/56

30 taken in tow and got to the Ship safely. The Captain, when he heard of it, blamed himself very much. He said he ought to have known better [than] to have sent me down in the boat without oars & subject to the action of the tide setting out of the New Inlet. The kindness of speech and regrets made me feel grateful as I had then little idea of the danger I had incurred until it was too late to remedy.

[We] had a survey on the vessel repairs ordered; the cargo not ready. When my father heard of these mishaps, he wrote for me to come back by land & sent me money for this purpose. With Captain Cranston 1 had a happy time. He was kind and considerate and took pleasure in giving me all the instruction he could about the Ship and its manners and modes of acting under difficulties. I look back to his teaching with pleasure and gratitude and I was really sorry, when I was recalled home, to leave the Calpi.

I started in a sulky I hired to go as far as Newbern and travelled in company with other gentlemen in the same kind of vehicle. It was a very uninteresting route through the Pine forests and sandy country. At last we reached New Bern and there I took a seat in a miserable vehicle towards Plymouth, which we reached after much delay. Here we hired a boat to cross Albemarle to Edenton, rowed by two negroes, and embarked late in the afternoon with a fair wind & very ragged sail, much too large & no reefs in it. When we reached the middle of Albemarle Sound an ominous thunder cloud appeared in the West & it was quite evident we should be overtaken by a severe Gust rising rapidly. There were three Passengers besides myself and two Negroes. They all became alarmed, and I thought it necessary to assume command of the oyster boat, for it was nothing better, and, as the wind enabled us to lay our course for Edenton, I determined to carry all the sail I could find. The sprit had to be taken down and then the sail knotted for a reef. We sped on rapidly and the crazy boat showed the strains on her for it began to leak badly. We found nothing to bail with but our hats and these were soon put in requisition to keep the water down, for it was evident, if exertion was not made to the best of our power, we should have to reduce all sail & make up our minds to pass the night on the Sound in the open boat. The rain & wind were violent but we managed to hold on & made rapid progress with now and then a fearful launch which almost threw us on our beam ends, but we made the land just as it grew dark and, afterwards, the lights of the City of Edenton and, in due time, about 12, we reached the Wharf. I never saw a more relieved set of passengers, and the negroes equally so, and I was thankful myself to have escaped the night on the sound—if the boat had held together.

The three passengers felt under deep obligation for my exertions and knowledge of the management of the boat, and frankly told me that I had saved their lives. We got supper and went to bed to a sound sleep, having taken our seats in a crazy stage for Suffolk, to reach Norfolk, it being the only road at that time. On arriving at Suffolk we found there some students who were having an uproarious time of