enants, the one party to prepare a sea
anchor, and the other to attend to the provisioning of the boats and get
them ready for launching. I was attached to the first lieutenant's
party, or that which undertook the preparation of the sea anchor; and as
the idea impressed me as being rather ingenious, I will describe it for
the benefit of those who may feel interested in such matters, prefacing
my description with the explanation that, in consequence of the
springing up of the gale so soon after our action with the Frenchmen,
our jury-rig was of a very primitive and incomplete character, such as
would enable us to run fairly well before the wind, but not such as
would permit of our lying-to; hence the need for a sea anchor, now that
the necessity had arisen for us to launch our boats in heavy weather.

The sea anchor was the offspring of the first lieutenant's
inventiveness, and it consisted of an old fore-topsail bent to a couple
of booms of suitable length and stoutness. The head of the sail was
bent to one of the booms with seizings, in much the same manner as it
would have been bent to a topsail yard, while the clews were securely
lashed to the extremities of the other boom. Then to the boom which
represented the topsail yard was attached, a crow-foot made of two spans
of stout hawser, having an eye in the centre of them to which to bend
the cable. The lower boom was well weighted by the attachment to it of
a number of pigs of iron ballast, as well as our stream anchor; after
which the starboard cable was paid out and passed along aft, outside the
fore rigging, the end being then brought inboard and bent on to the
crow-foot. The whole was then made up as compactly as possible with
lashings, after which, by means of tackles aloft, it was hoisted clear
of the bulwarks and lowered down over the side; the lashings were then
cut and the sail dropped into the water, opening out as it did so, when,
the lower boom sinking with the weight attached to it, a broad surface
was exposed, acting as a very efficient sea anchor. At the moment when
everything was ready to let go, the ship's helm was put hard over,
bringing her broad-side-on to the sea, when, as she drove away to
leeward, she brought a strain upon her cable that at once fetched her up
head to wind. This part of the process having been successfully
accomplished, it was an easy matter to bend a spring on to the cable and
heave the ship round broadside-on to the sea