In
This Year It Was Our Evil Fortune To Be At Sea In One Of These Terrible
Storms; And Well
It was for us that our ship was newly _over-planked_,
and had no loading save victuals and ballast, with
Some gold and silver
for Bengal, as no other merchandise is carried to Bengal from Pegu. The
tyffon accordingly assailed us and lasted three days, carrying away our
sails, yards, and rudder; and as the ship laboured excessively, we
cut away our mast, yet she continued to labour more heavily than before,
so that the sea broke over her every moment, and almost filled her with
water. For the space of three days and three nights, sixty men who were
on board did nothing else than bale out the water continually, twenty at
one place, twenty in another, and twenty at a third place; yet during
all this storm so good was the hull of our ship that she took not in a
single drop of water at her sides or bottom, all coming in at the
hatches. Thus driving about at the mercy of the winds and waves, we were
during the darkness of the third night at about four o'clock after
sunset cast upon a shoal. When day appeared next morning we could see no
land on any side of us, so that we knew not where we were. It pleased
the divine goodness that a great wave of the sea came and floated us off
from the shoal into deep water, upon which we all felt as men reprieved
from immediate death, as the sea was calm and the water smooth.
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