Captain John Crane, 1800-1815

by Thomas Wallace Knox

One old writer, Thevenot, says he was an eye-witness of just such a scene when the mariners drove away a waterspout in the manner described. In another instance one of the ship's company knelt down by the mainmast, held in his hand a knife with a black handle, and read the Gospel according to St. John. When he came to the words, "Et verbum carne factum est et habitant in nobis" (And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us), the man turned towards the waterspout, and with his knife cut the air as if he were cutting the dragon or a demon. Immediately the water fell with a great noise, and the ship was saved.

Nothing of consequence happened for two days after the adventure with the waterspout. At the end of the second day a gale sprang up and blew with such a velocity for twelve or fourteen hours that the safety of the ship was greatly endangered. All the sails were taken in, with the exception of the least bit of a rag of a foresail and jib, just enough to hold the Washington around with her head to the wind. Frequently the waves broke over her bows and threatened to swamp her. The captain ordered the man at the wheel to be securely tied, for fear he would be washed overboard, and everybody on deck at the time took the precaution to lash himself to something whenever his duties did not require him to be moving about deck or climbing into the rigging.

It was well that we took this precaution; at any rate, it was well that I did. Several times the seas were so heavy that I'm sure I should have been washed overboard if I had not been lashed to the foot of the mainmast, and held on with all my might to the halliards that were attached to it. As you already know, it was David's watch below while I was on deck; when the watches were changed I told him what I had been doing, and advised him to follow my example.

He did so, and told me afterward that he thought my advice had saved him from being washed overboard. It was the first real gale of the voyage, and consequently the first that David and I had ever seen. We wished ourselves back at home in Pembroke, but wishing did not help the matter a bit; and we resigned ourselves to whatever fate had in store for us.

All on board the Washington had a good deal of anxiety concerning the Warwick, as she was so short-handed in crew. With only one officer and six men it would be necessary for all of them to be on duty through the entire night. There was no such thing as standing watch and watch in a gale like that.

When the morning came we looked anxiously all about the horizon, the mate going aloft with the captain's glass and sweeping every part of the ocean as far as he could see. He must have staid up there fully an hour; every eye was watching him, and every ear listening in the hope of hearing him call out "Sail ho!" and indicate the direction where the sail appeared. But he made no call, and descended finally to the deck. He shook his head as the captain spoke to him, and we all knew just as well as though he had told us that the Warwick was not in sight.

We had been driven a considerable distance out of our course by the gale. As the wind abated we put on a little sail, and increased the quantity at intervals as the wind dropped down. When we had resumed our course and were moving along at a fair pace I looked to the south and saw, perhaps eight or ten miles away from us, a solid wall of what seemed to be land. I was about to say so to the men who were nearest to me, but checked myself just in time to avoid a display of my ignorance. Haines was a little distance away from me, near the foot of the foremast, and so I sidled up to him and asked him to look in the direction that I indicated. I did not suggest what I thought that bank was, and left him to enlighten me or not. We seemed to be approaching the shore with considerable rapidity, and yet we were sailing parallel to it, and not in its direction.

"That fog-bank will be on us pretty quick," Haines remarked; and then I knew that what I had supposed to be land was nothing more than fog.

"Get out your knife, Jack," said Haines, "and be ready to slash yer way through it. That's one of them fogs that's made out 'er pea-soup and water mixed with a lot of air. When it gets on us you won't be able to see the length of the ship, and just so long as that fog stays we might as well be sailing in a wash-tub for all that we can see around us."

I kept my eye on the fog-bank and saw that it neared us rapidly until it reached us. All around and above the air was clear, and it did not take much imagination to suppose that a great monster was coming out of the south to overwhelm us.