A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 794 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13 eBook

Robert Kerr (writer)
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 794 pages of information about A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13.

At two o’clock in the morning of the 22d, the tide left her, and gave us an opportunity to examine the leak, which we found to be at her floor-heads, a little before the starboard fore-chains.  In this place the rocks had made their way through four planks, and even into the timbers; three more planks were much damaged, and the appearance of these breaches was very extraordinary:  There was not a splinter to be seen, but all was so smooth as if the whole had been cut away by an instrument:  The timbers in this place were happily very close, and if they had not, it would have been absolutely impossible to have saved the ship.  But after all, her preservation depended upon a circumstance still more remarkable:  One of the holes, which was big enough to have sunk us, if we had had eight pumps instead of four, and been able to keep them incessantly going, was in great measure plugged up by a fragment of the rock, which, after having made the wound, was left sticking in it, so that the water which at first had gained upon our pumps was what came in at the interstices, between the stone and the edges of the hole that received it.  We found also several pieces of the fothering, which had made their way between the timbers, and in a great measure stopped those parts of the leak which the stone had left open.  Upon further examination, we found that, besides the leak, considerable damage had been done to the bottom; great part of the sheathing was gone from under the larboard bow; a considerable part of the false keel was also wanting, and these indeed we had seen swim away in fragments from the vessel, while she lay beating against the rock:  The remainder of it was in so shattered a condition, that it had better have been gone; and the fore foot and main keel were also damaged, but not so as to produce any immediate danger:  What damage she might have received abaft could not yet be exactly known, but we have reason to think it was not much, as but little water made its way into her bottom, while the tide kept below the leak which has already been described.  By nine o’clock in the morning the carpenters got to work upon her, while the smiths were busy in making bolts and nails.  In the mean time, some of the people were sent on the other side of the water to shoot pigeons for the sick, who at their return reported that they had seen an animal as large as a greyhound, of a slender make, a mouse-colour, and extremely swift; they discovered also many Indian houses, and a fine stream of fresh water.

The next morning I sent a boat to haul the seine; but at noon it returned with only three fish, and yet we saw them in plenty leaping about the harbour.  This day the carpenter finished the repairs that were necessary on the starboard side; and at nine o’clock in the evening we heeled the ship the other way, and hauled her off about two feet for fear of neiping.  This day almost every body had seen the animal which the pigeon-shooters had brought an account of the day

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.