On the 26th in the morning, we thought we saw land to the west south-west, but, after running about sixteen leagues in that direction, we found our mistake; and night coming on, we again steered west. Our latitude, at this time, was 19° 45ʹ, which was the greatest southing we made in this run; our longitude was 183°, and variation 12° 45ʹ E. We continued in this course, with little alteration in the wind, till the 29th, when it shifted to the south-east and south south-east, and, for a few hours in the night, it was in the west; the weather being dark and cloudy, with much rain. We had met, for some days past, several turtles, one of which was the smallest I ever saw, not exceeding three inches in length. We were also accompanied by man-of-war birds, and boobies of an unusual kind, being quite white (except the tip of the wing, which was black), and easily mistaken, at first sight, for gannets.
The light winds which we had met with for some time past, with the present unsettled state of the weather, and the little appearance of any change for the better, induced Captain Clerke to alter his plan of keeping within the tropical latitudes; and accordingly, at six this evening, we began to steer north-west by north, at which time our latitude was 20° 23ʹ, and our longitude 180° 40ʹ. During the continuance of the light winds, which prevailed almost constantly ever since our departure from the Sandwich Islands, the weather was very close, and the air hot and sultry; the thermometer being generally at 80°, and sometimes at 83°. All this time, we had a considerable swell from the north-east; and in no period of the voyage did the ships roll and strain so violently.
In the morning of the 1st of April, the wind changed from the south-east to the north-east by east, and blew a fresh breeze, till the morning of the 4th, when it altered two points more to the east, and by noon increased to a strong gale, which lasted till the afternoon of the 5th, attended with hazy weather. It then again altered its direction to the south-east, became more moderate, and was accompanied by heavy showers of rain. During all this time, we kept steering to the north-west, against a slow but regular current from that quarter, which caused a constant variation from our reckoning by the log, of fifteen miles a day. On the 4th, being then in the latitude 26° 17ʹ, and longitude 173° 30ʹ, we passed prodigious quantities of what sailors call Portuguese men-of-war (holothuria physalis), and were also accompanied with a great number of sea birds, amongst which we observed, for the first time, the albatross and sheerwater.
On the 6th, at noon, we lost the trade-wind, and were suddenly taken a-back, with the wind from the north north-west. At this time, our latitude was 29° 50ʹ, and our longitude 170° 1ʹ. As the old running-ropes were constantly breaking in the late gales, we reeved what new ones we had left, and made such other preparations, as were necessary for the very different climate with which we were now shortly to encounter. The fine weather we met with between the tropics, had not been idly spent. The carpenters found sufficient employment in repairing the boats. The best bower-cable had been so much damaged by the foul ground in Karakakooa Bay, and whilst we were at anchor off Oneeheow, that we were obliged to cut forty fathoms from it; in converting of which, with other old cordage, into spun-yarn, and applying it to different uses, a considerable part of the people were kept constantly employed by the boatswain. The airing of sails and other stores, which, from the leakiness of the decks and sides of the ships, were perpetually subject to be wet, had now become a frequent as well as a laborious and troublesome part of our duty.
Besides these cares, which had regard only to the ships themselves, there were others, which had for their object the preservation of the health of the crews, that furnished a constant occupation to a great number of our hands. The standing orders, established by Captain Cook, of airing the bedding, placing fires between decks, washing them with vinegar, and smoking them with gunpowder, were observed without any intermission. For some time past, even the operation of mending the sailors’ old jackets had risen into a duty both of difficulty and importance. It may be necessary to inform those who are unacquainted with the disposition and habits of seamen, that they are so accustomed in ships of war to be directed in the care of themselves by their officers, that they lose the very idea of foresight, and contract the thoughtlessness of infants. I am sure, that if our people had been left to their own discretion alone, we should have had the whole crew naked, before the voyage had been half finished. It was natural to expect that their experience, during our voyage to the north last year, would have made them sensible of the necessity of paying some attention to these matters; but if such reflections ever occurred to them, their impression was so transitory, that, upon our return to the tropical climates, their fur jackets, and the rest of their cold country clothes, were kicked about the decks as things of no value; though it was generally known, in both ships, that we were to make another voyage toward the pole. They were, of course, picked up by the officers; and, being put into casks, restored about this time to the owners.
In the afternoon, we observed some of the sheathing floating by the ship; and, on examination, found that twelve or fourteen feet had been washed off from under the larboard-bow, where we supposed the leak to have been, which, ever since our leaving Sandwich Islands, had kept the people almost constantly at the pumps, making twelve inches water an hour. This day we saw a number of small crabs, of a pale blue colour; and had again, in company, a few albatrosses and sheerwaters. The thermometer, in the night-time, sunk eleven degrees; and although it still remained as high as 59°, yet we suffered much from the cold; our feelings being, as yet, by no means reconciled to that degree of temperature.
The wind continued blowing fresh from the north, till the eighth, in the morning, when it became more moderate, with fair weather, and gradually changed its direction to the east, and afterward to the south.
On the ninth, at noon, our latitude was 32° 16ʹ; our longitude 166° 40ʹ; and the variation 8° 30ʹ E. And on the tenth, having crossed the track of the Spanish galleons from the Manillas to Acapulco, we expected to have fallen in with the Island of Rica de Plata, which, according to De Lisle’s chart, in which the route of those ships is laid down, ought to have been in sight; its latitude, as there given, being 33° 30ʹ N., and its longitude 166° E. Notwithstanding we were so far advanced to the northward, we saw this day a tropic bird, and also several other kinds of sea-birds; such as puffins, sea-parrots, sheerwaters, and albatrosses.
On the eleventh, at noon, we were in latitude 35° 30ʹ, longitude 165° 45ʹ; and during the course of the day, had sea-birds, as before, and passed several bunches of sea-weed. About the same time, the Discovery passed a log of wood; but no other signs of land were seen.
The next day the wind came gradually round to the east, and increased to so strong a gale, as obliged us to strike our top-gallant yards, and brought us under the lower sails, and the main top-sail close reefed. Unfortunately we were upon that tack, which was the most disadvantageous for our leak. But, as we had always been able to keep it under with the hand-pumps, it gave us no great uneasiness, till the 13th, about six in the afternoon, when we were greatly alarmed by a sudden inundation, that deluged the whole space between decks. The water, which had lodged in the coal-hole, not finding a sufficient vent into the well, had forced up the platforms over it, and in a moment set every thing afloat. Our situation was indeed exceedingly distressing; nor did we immediately see any means of relieving ourselves. A pump, through the upper decks into the coal-hole, could answer no end, as it would very soon have been choked up by the small coals; and, to bale the water out with buckets, was become impracticable, from the number of bulky materials that were washed out of the gunner’s store-room into it, and which, by the ship’s motion, were tossed violently from side to side. No other method was therefore left, but to cut a hole through the bulk-head (or partition) that separated the coal hole from the fore-hold, and by that means to make a passage for the body of water into the well. However, before that it could be done, it was necessary to get the casks of dry provisions out of the fore-hold, which kept us employed the greatest part of the night; so that the carpenters could not get at the partition till the next morning. As soon as a passage was made, the greatest part of the water emptied itself into the well, and enabled us to get out the rest with buckets. But the leak was now so much increased, that we were obliged to keep one half of the people constantly pumping and baleing, till the noon of the 15th. Our men bore, with great cheerfulness, this excessive fatigue, which was much increased by their having no dry place to sleep in; and, on this account, we began to serve their full allowance of grog.