seventeen persons, including one male and one female passenger. With a
fine stiff breeze down the bay, we soon lost sight of land, and nothing
of note occurred till the 30th, when the wind got up from the
north-west, and soon blew so heavy a gale, that we were obliged to take
in every thing but a close-reefed main-topsail, under which we scudded
till the 5th of January. All this time it blew a hurricane, principally
from the north-west, but occasionally, after a short lull, flying round
to the south-west, with a fury that nothing could resist. The sea
threatened to overwhelm our little craft. It was several times proposed
to lay her to; but the fatal opinion prevailed that she did better in
scudding. On the night of the 6th, a tremendous sea struck her on the
stern, stove in all the dead-lights, and washed them into the cabin,
lifted the taffrail a foot or more out of its place, carried away the
afterpart of the larboard bulwark, shattered the whole of the
stern-frame, and washed one of the steersmen away from the wheel. The
carpenter and crew with much labor secured the stern as well as they
could for the night, and next morning the wind moderated a little, new
dead-lights were put in, and the damages further repaired.

Every stitch of canvas, but the main-topsail, jib, and trysail, were
split into ribbons, so that we became anxious to know how we should
reach port when the gale subsided. But we were soon spared further care
on that head. As the day closed in, the tempest resumed its fury, and by
the following morning, (the 8th,) raged with such appalling violence,
that we laid her too. From her straining, the brig had now began to make
so much water, as to require all hands in succession at the pumps till
the following morning at two, when the larboard watch went below, the
watch on deck, by constant exertion, sufficing to keep her free.

At seven on the morning of the 9th, a tremendous sea broke over the