And here we had an instance showing, how very
important it is that a captain of a man-of-war should be a good sailor,
and have his ship in such discipline as to be strictly obeyed by his
ship's company. I heard the officers unanimously assert, after the
danger was over, that nothing but the presence of mind which was shown
by Captain Savage could have saved the ship and her crew. We had chased
a convoy of vessels to the bottom of the bay: the wind was very fresh
when we hauled off, after running them on shore, and the surf on the
beach even at that time was so great, that they were certain to go to
pieces before they could be got afloat again. We were obliged to
double-reef the topsails as soon as we hauled to the wind, and the
weather looked very threatening. In an hour afterwards, the whole sky
was covered with one black cloud, which sank so low as nearly to touch
our mast-heads, and a tremendous sea, which appeared to have risen up
almost by magic, rolled in upon us, setting the vessel on a dead lee
shore. As the night closed in, it blew a dreadful gale, and the ship was
nearly buried with the press of canvas which she was obliged to carry;
for had we sea-room, we should have been lying-to under storm staysails;
but we were forced to carry on at all risks, that we might claw off
shore. The sea broke over as we lay in the trough, deluging us with
water from the forecastle, aft to the binnacles; and very often as the
ship descended with a plunge, it was with such force that I really
thought she would divide in half with the violence of the shock.
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