Words can convey no idea of the wildness that reigned in the countenance of almost every person as the night approached; and many, terrified with the apprehensions of a nightly shipwreck, began to lament that the cable had not been at once cut, so as to have let the vessel go on shore whilst day-light remained: this indeed had been proposed a few hours after the vessel began to strike; but it was over-ruled by the captain, who very properly refused to adopt a measure tending to the immediate and certain destruction of his vessel, whilst a possibility remained that she might escape.
Till nine o’clock at night the vessel kept striking every minute, during which time we were kept in a state of the most dreadful suspence about our fate; but then happily the wind shifted one or two points in our favour, which occasioned the vessel to roll instead of striking. At midnight the gale grew somewhat more moderate; and at three in the morning it was so far abated, that the men were enabled to haul on the anchor, and in a short time to bring the vessel once more into deep water, and out of all danger. Great was the joy, as may well be imagined, which this circumstance diffused amongst the passengers; and well pleased was each one, after the fatigue and anxiety of the preceding day, to think he might securely lay himself down to rest.
The next morning the sun arose in all his majesty from behind one of the distant islands. The azure sky was unobscured by a single cloud, the air felt serenely mild, and the birds, as if equally delighted with man that the storm was over, sweetly warbled forth their songs in the adjacent woods; in short, had it not been for the disordered condition in which we saw our vessel, and every thing belonging to us, the perils we had gone through would have appeared like a dream.
DAMAGE DONE THE SHIP.
The first object of examination was the rudder. The tiller was broken to atoms; and the sailors who went over the stern reported, that of the four gudgeons or hooks on which the rudder was suspended, only one was left entire, and that one was much bent. On being unshipped, the bottom of it was found to be so much shivered that it actually resembled the end of a broom. The keel, there was every reason to suppose, was in the same shattered condition; nevertheless the vessel, to the great astonishment of every person on board, did not make much water. Had she been half as crazy as the King’s vessel in which we went up the lake, nothing could have saved her from destruction.
A consultation was now held upon what was best to be done. To proceed on the voyage appeared totally out of the question; and it only remained to determine which way was the easiest and readiest to get back to Malden. All was at a stand, when an officer in the American service proposed the beating out of an iron crow bar, and the manufacturing of new gudgeons. This was thought to be impracticable; but necessity, the mother of invention, having set all our heads to work, an anvil was formed of a number of axes laid upon a block of wood; a large fire was kindled, and a party of us acting as smiths in turns, by the end of three hours contrived to hammer out one very respectable gudgeon.
In the mean time others of the passengers were employed in making a new tiller, and others undertook to fish for the cable and anchor that had been slipped, whilst the sailors were kept busily employed at the rigging. By nightfall the vessel was so far refitted that no apprehensions were any longer entertained about our being able to reach Malden in safety, and some began to think there would be no danger in prosecuting the voyage down the lake. The captain said that his conduct must be regulated entirely by the appearance of the weather on the following day.
MEET TWO YOUNG TRAVELLERS.
Early the next morning, whilst we yet remained stretched in our births, our party was much surprised at hearing the sound of strange voices upon deck; but our surprise was still greater, when on a nearer approach we recognized them to be the voices of two young friends of ours, who, like ourselves, had crossed the Atlantic to make a tour of the continent of North America, and whom, but a few days before we had quitted Philadelphia, we had accompanied some miles from that city on their way towards the south. They had travelled, it seemed, from Philadelphia to Virginia, afterwards to Kentucky, and had found their way from the Ohio to Detroit on horseback, after encountering numberless inconveniences. There they had engaged a passage in a little sloop bound to Fort Erie, the last vessel which was to quit that port during the present season. They had embarked the preceding day, and in the night had run in to Put-in-Bay, as the wind was not favourable for going down the lake. The commander of the sloop offered to stay by our vessel, and to give her every assistance in his power, if our captain chose to proceed down the lake with him. The offer was gladly accepted, and it was agreed that the two vessels should sail together as soon as the wind was favourable.
After having breakfasted, we proceeded with our young friends, in the ship’s boat, to that part of the island off which we had been exposed to so much danger. Here we found the shore strewed with the oars, spars, &c. which had been washed overboard, and from the dreadful manner in which they were shattered, no doubt remained on our minds, but that if the vessel had been wrecked, two thirds of the passengers at least must have perished amidst the rocks and breakers. We spent the day rambling about the woods, and recounting to each other our adventures since the last separation, and in the evening returned to our respective ships. About midnight the wind became fair, and whilst we lay wrapt in sleep the vessels put to sea.