By way of Cape Horn : $b four months in a Yankee clipperStevenson, Paul Eve
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By way of Cape Horn : $b four months in a Yankee clipper
Stevenson, Paul Eve
Hosea Higgins (Ship); Seafaring life; Voyages to the Pacific coast
ever knew these courses to be omitted at sea; the weather must truly
be violent when it so happens. But we had plenty of good scorching hot
coffee; and, it might be asked, why is it that during the heaviest
weather at sea the coffee is always boiling, while in one’s private
house it is only after a protracted warfare with the cook that the
coffee comes in at a higher temperature than lukewarm?
Well, the wind kept on blowing still harder, and at two in the
afternoon had attained the fury of a full-grown pampero. And the sea!
Oh, how it boiled and seethed like frothy cream! And how the wind
screamed aloft in the squalls! Fortunately, they came at comparatively
long intervals, with sunshine between; but while one lasted it was
nearly impossible to catch sight of a square yard of dark water, for
the surface was as white as milk; and the crests of the tall seas were
fairly wrenched off and shot through the air with terrific force, the
atmosphere being full of flying spoondrift which the toughest skin
couldn’t face, while the horizon was everywhere filled with ponderous,
breaking seas. Our motion all day was very severe: first a heavy roll
which dipped the lee rail under, while the water boiled up to the lee
fore-dead-eyes; then the awkward weather roll down the windward side of
the sea; and finally a deep, headlong dive into the valley, with a wall
of water on either hand. The skipper thought that the average height
of the larger seas was about forty feet from crest to trough,--not so
large as the Cape Horn rollers; but it must be borne in mind that this
was a very quick, vicious sea, with not more than three hundred feet
between the crests, so that solid water was bound to come aboard even
on the poop.
Well, well, it was a magnificent sight; and as we are now accompanied
by a cheerful flock of Cape pigeons, everything has a true Southern
Ocean look. My wife was not in the least frightened during the day;
but she had such a good grounding on our first voyage that it is not
astonishing. We made no departure in the twenty-four hours but two
degrees of latitude, which was extremely good work, considering that we
were by the wind in a pampero. Latitude, 32° 25′ south; longitude, 45°
33′ west.
+June 24+
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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