T e. T.... I arrived home early in December, 18ol. In 1854, J built a small schooner, which I called Sheerwater, put a cargo on board, and Sept, 8th, sailed for Australia. Od the LOth, a gale sprung up from the S. E., which continued to mere until the night of the 11th, when it turned into a fui hurricane. We were capsized, taken Iron, the wreck by the Hamburg ship, Hampden, and carried to Hamburg, mediately on my arrival there, I sent the following letter home, which briefly describes the disaster. Hamburg, October 16$, 1854. Dear Sir: — I am sorry to be under the necessity of dating a letter from this place, so opposite to that of my destination.
But God has so ordered it, and we must submit to his will. 1 am also extremely unhappy that it devolves on me to relate a dreadful disaster which has befallen the Sheerwater. On the 10th ult., it commenced blowing hard, with a heavy sea, and continued to increase until Tuesday, the 11th. The schooner had behaved nobly, riding over the sea like a bird, her deck dry, and everything all right. On the morning of the 12th, at daylight, the mate who had the watch, called all hands to shorten sail, or rather to take in all, except a small piece of the mainsail, to lay her to under. We now lay to perfectly dry, but from the appearance of the Heavens, feared that the worst was yet to come, and so it unfortunately proved.
The gale, by 10 A. M., had become a perfect hurricane, with a sea that seemed to reach the very Heavens, accompanied with floods of rain that for a moment would smooth the sea, but it soon rose again like mountainpeaks, not one of which came on our decks. But now came the blast that was nigh sending us into eternity. The schooner was thrown down, her masts nearly parallel with the water, the cargo shifted, the water was pouring into her, and we thought we were gone. She righted during a lull, which brought her deck out of water. Directly it came on again, and down she went. We sprung to the weather rail, in order to get upon her side, which might prolong our lives a short time.
She again righted a little, but left us no hope; and with much trouble we obtained an axe and cut away the foremast. This was a difficult job, as it blew so heavy that it was almost impossible to make a stroke with the axe. We succeeded in getting it over the side which immediately relieved her. Still hung by the lee-rigging, which could not be got at; but at length we succeeded in getting it clear. It then swung round under the stern, knocked away the rudder, and injured the stern post. We cut the weather-rigging of the mainmast, but it blew so hard we could do nothAUTOBIOGRAPHY..001 ing more. The mast, on account of the heavy roll, broke partly off in the wake of the deck, and split up about fifteen feet; it being a tough stick was loath to go.
We now lay with our deck out of water. Everything in the hold had shifted, our water casks stove and empty, provisions wet und spoiled, (except our meats). The gale had now somewhat abated. We set to work to put things to rights. The sea was still running very high, which made it difficult to aecomplish much; but if we could get anything on her to keep her steady, we might possibly remain on board a few days and run a chance of being taken off. We were quite exhausted, not having eaten anything for nearly twenty-four hours. All were anxiously scanning the horizon to catch a glimpse of anything that looked like a sail; when the joyful cry, of " sail ho 1" saluted our ears.
A little speck was just discernible apparently coining towards us. Every eye was now intently fixed upon the stranger, and soon discovered to our grief that she was edging off from us; probably we had not been seen. Our feelings may be easily imagined. We soon hit upon an expedient which waa the means of our preservation. There was a cannon on board, that lie just under the hatchway, which we succeeded in getting up; there was also a tin case of powder, that had been hermetically sealed, which we were fortunate enough to get, and one of the men had some dry matches. We fired our gun three times, when the ship run her colors up, and immediately tacked and stood for us.