The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
At two o’clock in the morning of the 22d, the tide left her, and gave us
an opportunity to examine the leak, which we found to be at her floor
heads, a little before the starboard fore-chains. In this place the
rocks had made their way through four planks, and even into the timbers;
three more planks were much damaged, and the appearance of these
breaches was very extraordinary: there was not a splinter to be seen,
but all was as smooth, as if the whole had been cut away by an
instrument: the timbers in this place were happily very close, and if
they had not, it would have been absolutely impossible to have saved the
ship. But after all, her preservation depended upon a circumstance still
more remarkable: one of the holes, which was big enough to have sunk us,
if we had had eight pumps instead of four, and been able to keep them
incessantly going, was in great measure plugged up by a fragment of the
rock, which, after having made the wound, was left sticking in it; so
that the water which at first had gained upon our pumps, was what came
in at the interstices, between the stone and the edges of the hole that
received it. We found also several pieces of the fothering, which had
made their way between the timbers, and in a great measure stopped those
parts of the leak which the stone had left open. Upon further
examination, we found that, besides the leak, considerable damage had
been done to the bottom; great part of the sheathing was gone from under
the larboard bow; a considerable part of the false keel was also
wanting; and these indeed we had seen swim away in fragments from the
vessel, while she lay beating against the rock: the remainder of it was
in so shattered a condition that it had better have been gone; and the
fore-foot and main keel were also damaged, but not so as to produce any
immediate danger: what damage she might have received abaft could not
yet be exactly known, but we had reason to think it was not much, as but
little water made its way into her bottom, while the tide kept below the
leak which has already been described. By nine o’clock in the morning
the carpenters got to work upon her, while the smiths were busy in
making bolts and nails. In the mean time, some of the people were sent
on the other side of the water to shoot pigeons for the sick, who at
their return reported that they had seen an animal as large as a
grey-hound, of a slender make, a mouse colour, and extremely swift; they
discovered also many Indian houses, and a fine stream of fresh water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account