rigging. The captain came to me
and said, loaded as we were, we could not live in that gale; he would
have to seek a place to anchor on the side of the bay. I said to him, he
was the captain. The line was thrown out every few minutes. At last we
found sounding, and the anchor was cast. We had been there but a short
time before another vessel, more than twice as large as ours, came aside
of us, with a heavy deck-load of lumber, and got entangled in our anchor
chain, and kept drawing us nearer to them. If they had struck our vessel
we knew we were lost. They would have sunk us at once. Seven times they
came down on us and each time, by superhuman efforts, we warded the
blow, all hands and passengers doing their best, fully realizing the
danger they were in. It seems to me that I hear now the oaths of the
captain of the other vessel rising above the sounds of the terrific
hurricane as he was ordering his men, for they, too, were in danger if
they collided with us. Of course, he was on the bare poles. As he came
on us the eighth time they hoisted their jib sail. As the wind struck
it, it seemed to lift their vessel out of the water, and, thank God, we
were freed from it. It was forty-five years ago, and, as I write, it
all lives before me as visible as if it were yesterday. The captain of
the other vessel had seen our light, and, supposing we were in the right
channel, had followed us. We had escaped what seemed almost certain
death, but were not out of danger. Our new good chain was attached to
our bad chain, and the captain had let out all our chain to free us from
the other vessel, so we were actually hanging by our bad chain in the
open roadstead, not in the protection of a harbor, and liable to drag
our anchor or break our chain and be wrecked; but we could do nothing
more than submit to our fate. I thought I would get into my berth and
try and get to sleep, and, if I found myself alive in the morning, we
might be saved. I did sleep, and when I awoke it was daylight. The gale
was subsiding. We had dragged our anchor. The bow of our brig was very
sharp; the banks were soft mud, and we had struck it with such force
that we were wedged in. The tide was low and we were almost out of
water. We fortunately had struck the land with our bow, and that was
what saved us. If we had struck with the side of the vessel we would
have been wrecked. So, ever since we had been freed from the other
vessel, we had been in safety and did not