ship's crew, the
pipes of the boatswain and his mates, the trumpets of the lieutenants,
and the clanking of the chain pumps. Morgan who had never been at
sea before, turned out in a great hurry, crying, "Cot have mercy and
compassion upon us! I believe, we have cot upon the confines of Lucifer
and the d--n'd!" while poor Thompson lay quaking in his hammock, putting
up petitions to heaven for our safety. I rose and joined the Welshman,
with whom (after having fortified ourselves with brandy) I went above;
but if my sense of hearing was startled before, how must my sight have
been apalled in beholding the effects of the storm! The sea was swelled
into billows mountain-high, on the top of which our ship sometimes hung
as if it were about to be precipitated to the abyss below! Sometimes
we sank between two waves that rose on each side higher than our
topmast-head, and threatened by dashing together to overwhelm us in a
moment! Of all our fleet, consisting of a hundred and fifty sail, scarce
twelve appeared, and these driving under their bare poles, at the mercy
of the tempest. At length the mast of one of them gave way, and tumbled
overboard with a hideous crash! Nor was the prospect in our own ship
much more agreeable; a number of officers and sailors ran backward and
forward with distraction in their looks, halloaing to one another, and
undetermined what they should attend to first. Some clung to the yards,
endeavouring to unbend the sails that were split into a thousand pieces
flapping in the wind; others tried to furl those which were yet whole,
while the masts, at every pitch, bent and quivered like twigs, as if
they would have shivered into innumerable splinters! While I considered
this scene with equal terror and astonishment, one of the main braces
broke, by the shock whereof two sailors were flung from the yard's arm
into the sea, where they perished, and poor Jack Rattlin thrown
down upon the deck, at the expense of a broken leg. Morgan and I ran
immediately to his assistance, and found a splinter of the shin-bone
thrust by the violence of the fall through the skin; as this was a case
of too great consequence to be treated without the authority of the
doctor I went down to his cabin to inform him of the accident, as well
as to bring up dressings which we always kept ready prepared. I entered
his apartment without any ceremony, and, by the glimmering of a lamp,
perceived him on his knees before something that very m