Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/263

206 it pleased God to send us three or four hours of moderate weather to mend it again. And then came on the heaviest gale that ever man on board had seen; we had nothing to look to, but that every wave, as it came, would carry us to the bottom; but thank God, it was not to be so. We were near six weeks without an inch of dry deck; and half that time never had a topsail set for two hours together; and all that we could do was to lie to under a balanced mizen and reefed mainsail, or to scud under a reefed foresail, our topgallant masts and yards being taken down, and our topmasts lowered, with our topsail yards upon the cap.—I could give you a longer history, but time will not permit, as I am very busy getting a Committee. [He means a Board of Longitude.]

 

As it occurred to the Author; a fresh water sailor (like Mr. Croker) that improvements in the instruments, and increased facilities in practice, may have made Lunar observations more available than when this pamphlet was published, above sixty years ago; with a view to be better informed of the present state of these concerns in the Navy, he wrote to an intelligent Officer (Lieutenant Alexander B. Howe) whom he knew to be of great experience. The following extract from the answer of that Gentleman, written in December, 1830 (see page 183)