Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 427

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Loss of the Cutter Louisa.

JULY,

got on deck; it was accordingly lashed, and we stood by to slip. About a quarter past 10 o'clock, the land was seen through the haze, close under our lee, and the cutter was driving down upon it: we immediately slipped, cut away the mizzen-mast, and put the vessel before it, shipping some very heavy seas in the attempt. The fore-staysail was hoisted, but instantly blown out of the bolt-rope; the peak of the mainsail was then ordered to be swayed up above the gunwale, in order that we might have her under coinmand ;-the men clapped on the throat-halyards, and the peak fell down and was jam- med in the larboard gangway abaft; we were by this time within 60 yards of the shore, upon which the surf was breaking terrifically. Mr. Owen, the second master, incautiously went before the gangway, and attempted to - lift the peak out clear, the men swaying on the halyards at the same time; it suddenly flew out, and jerked Mr. Owen into the sea, swung round, and was brought up by the fore rigging; the gaff went in two, and the sail, with part of the gaff, went forward, and was jammed before the rigging,—the foot of the sail towing overboard, thus leaving us an excellent little sail to scud under; it was instantly lashed and made secure. A tumbling sea, which broke over us, washed everything off the deck, that was not lashed, and amongst other things a hen-coop, which poor Owen got hold of, after having taken off his pea-jacket in the water. Another heavy sea broke on board, washed away the man at the tiller, and unshipped it; we were within 20 yards of the surf, and our situation truly awful. Owen's fate now seemed but the precursor of our's, and our moments, we thought, were numbered; but the hand of the Providence was stretched forth to save us. Lord Ame. lius Beauclerk caught hold of the tiller, and endeavored to ship it, but a heavy lurch sent him to leeward; I picked it up, and, with the assistance of the men, it was shipped, put hard a-port, and we passed clear of the end of the island, with the surf nearly breaking on board of us.

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We could do nothing but run before the gale, keeping a good look-out ahead, and thus we passed about an hour of anxiety and uncertainty, lest there should be other land to leeward. Our doubts on this matter were soon over, for the cry of breakers right ahead' seemed again to warn us, that our lives were but of short duration; the land appeared towering many hundred feet above us, and the roar of the breakers, as they dashed against a precipi- tous wall of granite, was heard above the fearful violence of the tempest.

•Hard a-port!'-and- hard a-starboard !'-were shouted out in quick suc- cession by captain Elliot, who was standing forward, holding on by the fore rigging: as the little vessel obeyed her helm, a blast, which seemed a con- centration of all the winds, threw her nearly on her broadside, but she gallantly stood up again under it, and we passed within a few yards of a smooth granite precipice, on which the sea, first broke, and to have touched which would have shivered the cutter into a thousand fragments. We ran along this frightful coast, the wind nearly abeam, for not less than 300 yards, expecting every moment to be our last; but God, in his infinite mercy, was pleased to have us in his special keeping, and we rounded the end of this