‘Not being able, from the rolling of the vessel, to put back the compass properly in its place, the helmsman was steering partly by guesswork, and we drifted about five points out of our course. At half-past eleven P.M. the ship struck hard on a point of land on the American shore, called White Fish point, the bottom happening fortunately to be sandy, and the sea right on, the captain got the foresail on her and allowed her to drive up into the shallow so far as she would, to obviate the heavy bumpings, to prevent her broaching to, receiving the seas on her broadside. The conduct of the men, when the ship struck, was most admirable, inasmuch as the general rocky nature of the coast along the shore of the Lake Superior was well known to everyone on board. No one knew where we were; and White Fish point was perhaps the only place on Lake Superior where such an accident could have occurred without the vessel being instantaneously broken up. Had the men not obeyed the command to stand still, but had they rushed on deck, as the captain of the ship afterwards told me he fully expected they would have done, at least one half of them would have been washed overboard and drowned; as the deck was as slippery as ice could make it, and there was no bulwark round it other than a slight open railing, scarcely a foot high. Both the captain and subordinate officers of the vessel afterwards expressed their astonishment at the coolness and discipline the soldiers displayed. We remained at White Fish point till about half-past three P.M. Monday without any apparent possibility of getting the ship off, occupying ourselves in the meantime with landing the freight for the purpose of lightening the vessel, and making what arrangement we could for passing the winter where we were. About that hour, however, by working the vessel back with all the steam the engine would bear, and rigging a derrick, they got us off again; and about ten A.M. Tuesday, we again proceeded towards Mina Bay and had arrived to within eight miles of the place, when the wind shifted to the SW. and commenced blowing again with such violence, that they were obliged to put about and return to White Fish point for shelter. After remaining there till noon, Wednesday, and the weather not at all improving, the captain represented to me the impossibility of reaching the bay this fall.