to which sailors have given
the name of Mother Carey's chickens; and we saw also many of these.

In the evening of Monday the 27th, which was very dark, as we were
standing to the westward under our courses, and a close-reefed
top-sail, the wind, in a hard squall, suddenly shifted, and took the
vessel right a-head; the violent jerk with which the sails were
instantly thrown a-back, was very near carrying the masts away by the
board, and oversetting the ship; the sails being at this time extremely
wet, and the gale in the highest degree violent, they clung so fast to
the masts and rigging, that it was scarcely possible to get them either
up or down; yet by the dexterous activity of our people, we got the
mainsail up, clewed up the main top-sail, and got the ship's head round
without receiving much damage. The violence of the wind continued
several hours, but before morning it veered again to the N.W. and
continued in that quarter till the afternoon of the 29th, when it died
away, and we had a dead calm for six hours. During this time we had a
high sea, which ran in great confusion from all quarters and broke
against the ship in a strange manner, making her roll with so violent
and sudden a motion, that I expected every moment to lose our masts. The
wind afterwards sprung up at W.S.W. which was fair, and we carried all
the sail we could set to make the most of it. It blew very hard in this
direction, with heavy rain for a few hours, but by noon on the 30th, it
returned to its usual quarter the N.W., and was so violent as to bring
us again under our courses, there being at the same time a prodigious
swell, which frequently broke over us. At five o'clock the next morning,
as we were lying-to under the reefed main-sail and balanced mizen, a
vast sea broke over the quarter where the ship's oars were lashed, and
carried away six of them, with the weather-cloth; it also broke the
mizen-gaff close where the sail was reeled, and the iron-strap of one of
the main dead eyes, laying the whole vessel for some time under water:
We were however fortunate enough to haul up the main-sail without
splitting, though it blew a hurricane, and a deluge of rain, or rather
of half-melted ice, at the same time poured down upon us. The wind soon
after shifted again from N.W. to S.W. and for about an hour blew, if
possible, stronger than ever. This wind made the ship come up with her
head right against the vast sea which the north-west wind had rais