Chapter 14 - Page 2

considered as a proof I was
not so very wrong. Nothing was said of any suit on this occasion; but I
walked off, and went directly on board a ship called the Coromandel, on
which I had had an eye, as a lee, for several days. In this vessel I
shipped as second-mate; carrying with me all the better character for the
ducking given to the notorious--------.

The Coromandel was bound to Cadiz, and thence round the Horn. The outward
bound cargo was flour, but to which ports we were going in South America,
I was ignorant. Our crew were all blacks, the officers excepted. We had a
good passage, until we got off Cape Trafalgar, when it came on to blow
heavily, directly on end. We lay-to off the Cape two days, and then ran
into Gibraltar, and anchored. Here we lay about a fortnight, when there
came on a gale from the south-west, which sent a tremendous sea in from
the Atlantic. This gale commenced in the afternoon, and blew very heavily
all that night. The force of the wind increased, little by little, until
it began to tell seriously among the shipping, of which a great number
were lying in front of the Rock. The second day of the gale, our ship was
pitching bows under, sending the water aft to the taffrail, while many
other craft struck adrift, or foundered at their anchors. The Coromandel
had one chain cable, and this was out. It was the only cable we used for
the first twenty-four hours. As the gale increased, however, it was
thought necessary to let go the sheet-anchor, which had a hempen cable
bent to it. Our chain, indeed, was said to be the first that was ever used
out of Philadelphia, though it had then been in the ship for some time,
and had proved itself a faithful servant the voyage before. Unfortunately,
most of the chain was out before we let go the sheet-anchor, and there was
no possibility of getting out a scope of the hempen cable. Dragging on
shore, where we lay, was pretty much out of the question, as the bottom
shelved inward, and the anchor, to come home, must have gone up hill.[14]

In this manner the Coromandel rode for two nights and two days, the sea
getting worse and worse, and the wind, it anything, rather increasing. We
took the weight of the last in squalls, some of which were terrific. By
this time the bay was well cleared of craft, nearly everything having
sunk, or gone ashore. An English packet lay directly ahead of us, rather
more than a cable's length distant, and she held on like ourselves. The
Governor Brooks, of Boston, lay over nearer to Algesiras, where the sea
and wind were a little broken, and, of course, she made better weather
than ourselves.

About eight o'clock, the third night, I was in the cabin, when the men on
deck sung out that the chain had gone. At this time the