"The prudent captain got the best of it this time," I said to the mate.
"I'm not so sure of that, sir," said he; "if he's been waiting two days for the wind to blow we've gained enough distance on him to pay for a good deal more damage than we've got."
"But it's a lucky job we did not lose our masts," I said; "if there had been a flaw anywhere they would have gone. Things held on well. Didn't it give you any warning?"
"No, sir," said the mate. "That bank that was hanging there ahead, when you were on deck, was what did the mischief. It seemed to hold about so and didn't look very threatening, but in five minutes it spread right up over the sky. I made a start to get sail in before it struck her, but I wasn't in time."
The gale blew very hard through the night and continued for seven days, but it moderated at times so that we set the whole topsails for a few hours. Four different times we were obliged to heave to under the close-reefed main-topsail and once it was "goose-winged." This time it blew a fearful gale. There was a black overcast sky, hanging so low down that it seemed not far above the mast heads, and driving across with great rapidity. Hard hail-squalls now and then passed over, and every face had to be shielded from the stinging violence of the hailstones. The sea was tremendous. At times there would be but one wave in sight, that, the whole ocean, and towering high up above the rail almost even with the tops it would come rolling on seeming to bear inevitable destruction; but as it approached, the good bark would gradually mount up its side, and then be whirled up and lifted over its summit like a little toy. As the waves broke, the wind lifted the whole crest into its arms and bore it onward mingling sea and air, driving the spray in horizontal lines high aloft across the ship. At about two o'clock in the afternoon a sea broke alongside and a good portion of its top came tumbling in over the weather rail. Nothing could resist its force. In went the galley and forecastle doors, the water-cask lashings gave way, the pig-pen on the main hatch was smashed all to pieces, the spare main-yard broke adrift, and the sea, having spent its force, found a passage for itself through the lee ports.
Fishing off the Cape.
After this gale a calm prevailed for a few hours and we heeded Horsburgh's praise of the fishing on the Banks of Agulhas, by trying our fortune with the line. The only result, however, was the accompanying sketch of the performance.
By these gales we lost eight days on our passage and only gained one hundred miles in nine days, an inspection of our track for ten days will show how hard it is sometimes for sailing vessels to make quick passages.