The next morning, about eight o'clock, we weighed, with little wind at
W.S.W. and steered about half a mile S.E. by E. when, having deepened
our water to thirteen fathom, we steered between the E. and E.N.E. along
the south side of the shoal, at the distance of about seven miles from
the south shore, keeping two boats at some distance, one on each bow, to
sound. The depth of water was very irregular, varying continually
between nine and fifteen fathom; and upon hauling nearer to the shoal,
we had very soon no more than seven fathom: The boats went over a bank,
upon which they had six fathom and a half; it being then low water, but
within the bank, they had thirteen fathom. At noon, we were to the
eastward of the shoal, and as we hauled over to the north shore, we soon
deepened our water to twenty fathom. Point Possession at this time bore
N.N.W. distant between four and five leagues, the Asses' Ears W.N.W.
distant six leagues, and Cape Virgin Mary N.E.1/2 E. distant about seven
leagues. From this situation we steered N.E. by E. for the south end of
the spit which runs to the southward of the Cape, and had no soundings
with five and twenty fathom. At four in the afternoon, Cape Virgin Mary
bore N.E. and the south end of the spit N.E. by E. distant three
leagues. At eight the next morning, the Cape bore N. by W. distant two
leagues. Our latitude was 51° 50', and our soundings were eleven and
twelve fathom. We now brought-to for the Tamar, who had come through the
north channel, and was some leagues astern of us, and while we were
waiting for her coming up, the officer of the watch informed me that the
head of the main-mast was sprung: I immediately went up to look at it
myself, and found it split almost in a straight line perpendicularly for
a considerable length, but I could not discover exactly how far the
fissure went, for the cheeks that were upon the mast. We imagined this
to have happened in the very hard gale that had overtaken us some time
before; but as it was of more importance to contrive how to repair the