CRUISE OF THE SALDANHA AND TALBOT.

At midnight of Saturday, the 30th of November, 1811, with a fair wind and a smooth sea, we weighed from our station, in company with the Saldanha frigate, of thirty-eight guns, Captain Packenham, with a crew of three hundred men, on a cruise, as was intended, of twenty days—­the Saldanha taking a westerly course, while we stood in the opposite direction.

We had scarcely got out of the lock and cleared the heads, however, when we plunged at once into all the miseries of a gale of wind blowing from the west.  During the three following days, it continued to increase in violence, when the islands of Coll and Tiree became visible to us.  As the wind had now chopped round more to the north, and continued unabated in violence, the danger of getting involved among the numerous small islands and rugged headlands, on the northwest coast of Inverness-shire, became evident.  It was therefore deemed expedient to wear the ship round, and make a port with all expedition.  With this view, and favored by the wind, a course was shaped for Lochswilly, and away we scudded under close-reefed foresail and main-topsail, followed by a tremendous sea, which threatened every moment to overwhelm us, and accompanied by piercing showers of hail, and a gale which blew with incredible fury.  The same course was steered until next day about noon, when land was seen on the lee-bow.  The weather being thick, some time elapsed before it could be distinctly made out, and it was then ascertained to be the island of North Arran, on the coast of Donegal, westward of Lochswilly.  The ship was therefore hauled up some points, and we yet entertained hopes of reaching an anchorage before nightfall, when the weather gradually thickened, and the sea, now that we were upon the wind, broke over us in all directions.  Its violence was such, that in a few minutes several of our ports were stove in, at which the water poured in in great abundance, until it was actually breast high on the lee-side of the main deck.  Fortunately, but little got below, and the ship was relieved by taking in the foresail.  But a dreadful addition was now made to the precariousness of our situation, by the cry of “land a-head!” which was seen from the forecastle, and must have been very near.  Not a moment was now lost in wearing the ship round on the other tack, and making what little sail could be carried, to weather the land we had already passed.  This soon proved, however, to be a forlorn prospect, for it was found that we should run our distance by ten o’clock.  All the horrors of shipwreck now stared us in the face, aggravated tenfold by the darkness of the night, and the tremendous force of the wind, which now blew a hurricane.  Mountains are insignificant when speaking of the sea that kept pace with it; its violence was awful beyond description, and it frequently broke over all the poor little ship, that shivered and groaned, but behaved admirably.