relieve the wheel, and, fetching a lurch as he went aft, he brought up
against the launch, and thence down against our grass fore-sheet, which
had been so great a favourite in the London passages. This rope had been
stretched above the deck load for a ridge rope, but, being rotten, it gave
way when the poor Prussian struck it, and he went into the sea. We could
do no more than throw him the sky-light, which was large; but the ship
went foaming ahead, leaving the poor fellow to his fate, in the midst of
the hissing waters. Some of our people thought they saw poor Harry on the
sky-light, but this could not have made much difference in such a raging
sea. It was impossible to round-to, and as for a boat's living, it was out
of the question. This was the first man I saw lost at sea, and,
notwithstanding the severity of the gale, and the danger of the ship
herself, the fate of this excellent man made us all melancholy. The
captain felt it bitterly, as was evident from his manner. Still, the thing
was unavoidable.

We had begun to shorten sail early in the afternoon, and Harry was lost in
the first dog-watch. A little later the larboard fore-sheet went, and the
sail was split. All hands were called, and the rags were rolled up, and
the gaskets passed. The ship now laboured so awfully that she began to
leak. The swell was so high that we did not dare to come by the wind, and
the seas would come in, just about the main chains, meet in board and
travel out over her bows in a way to threaten everything that could be
moved. We lads were lashed at the pumps, and ordered to keep at work; and
to make matters worse, the wheat began to work its way into the pump-well.
While things were in this state, the main-top-sail split, leaving the ship
without a rag of sail on her.

The Sterling loved to be under water, even in moderate weather. Many a
time have I seen her send the water aft, into the quarter-deck scuppers,