The British Expedition to the CrimeaRussell, William Howard, Sir
History
The British Expedition to the Crimea
Russell, William Howard, Sir
Crimean War, 1853-1856
From 10 o'clock till 3.30 P.M. the ship ran along the diameter of the
semicircle between the two Capes which mark the southern extremities of
Greece. Cape Malea, or St. Angelo, is just such another bluff,
mountainous, and desolate headland as Cape Matapan, and is not so
civilized-looking, for there are no villages visible near it. However,
in a hole on its south-east face resides a Greek hermit, who must have
enormous opportunities for improving his mind, if Zimmerman be at all
trustworthy. He is not quite lost to the calls of nature, and has a
great tenderness for ships' biscuit. He generally hoists a little flag
when a vessel passes near, and is often gratified by a supply of
hard-bake. Had we wished to administer to his luxuries we could not have
done so, for the wind off this angle rushed at us with fury, and the
instant we rounded it we saw the sea broken into crests of foam making
right at our bows. The old mariners were not without warranty when they
advised "him who doubled Cape Malea to forget his home." We had got
right into the Etesian wind--one of those violent Levanters which the
learned among us said ought to be the Euroclydon which drove St. Paul to
Malta. Sheltered as we were to eastward by clusters of little islands,
the sea got up and rolled in confused wedges towards the ship. She
behaved nobly, but with her small auxiliary steam power she could
scarcely hold her own. We were driven away to leeward, and did not make
much headway. The gusts came down furiously between all kinds of
classical islands, which we could not make out, for our Maltese pilot
got frightened, and revealed the important secret that he did not know
one of them from the other. The men bore up well against their
Euroclydon, and emulated the conduct of the ship. Night came upon us,
labouring in black jolting seas, dashing them into white spray, and
running away into dangerous unknown parts. It passed songless, dark, and
uncomfortable: much was the suffering in the hermetically sealed cells
in which our officers "reposed" and grumbled at fortune.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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