[Dampier, William, 1697, A New Voyage Round The World, James Knapton, London]
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THEY LEAVE ST. JOHN'S AND THE COAST OF CHINA. A MOST OUTRAGEOUS STORM.
Accordingly we weighed anchor and set out; yet we had very little wind all the next night. But the day ensuing, which was the 4th day of July, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the wind came to the north-east and freshened upon us, and the sky looked very black in that quarter, and the black clouds began to rise apace and moved towards us; having hung all the morning in the horizon. This made us take in our topsails and, the wind still increasing, about nine o'clock we reefed our mainsail and foresail; at ten we furled our foresail, keeping under a mainsail and mizzen. At eleven o'clock we furled our mainsail and ballasted our mizzen; at which time it began to rain, and by twelve o'clock at night it blew exceeding hard and the rain poured down as through a sieve. It thundered and lightened prodigiously, and the sea seemed all of a fire about us; for every sea that broke sparkled like lightning. The violent wind raised the sea presently to a great height, and it ran very short and began to break in on our deck. One sea struck away the rails of our head, and our sheet-anchor, which was stowed with one flook or bending of the iron over the ship's gunwale, and lashed very well down to the side, was violently washed off, and had like to have struck a hole in our bow as it lay beating against it. Then we were forced to put right before the wind to stow our anchor again; which we did with much ado; but afterwards we durst not adventure to bring our ship to the wind again for fear of foundering, for the turning the ship either to or fro from the wind is dangerous in such violent storms. The fierceness of the weather continued till four o'clock that morning; in which time we did cut away two canoes that were towing astern.
CORPUS SANT, A LIGHT, OR METEOR APPEARING IN STORMS.
After four o'clock the thunder and the rain abated and then we saw a corpus sant at our main-top-mast head, on the very top of the truck of the spindle. This sight rejoiced our men exceedingly; for the height of the storm is commonly over when the corpus sant is seen aloft; but when they are seen lying on the deck it is generally accounted a bad sign.
A corpus sant is a certain small glittering light; when it appears as this did on the very top of the main-mast or at a yard-arm it is like a star; but when it appears on the deck it resembles a great glow-worm. The Spaniards have another name for it (though I take even this to be a Spanish or Portuguese name, and a corruption only of corpus sanctum) and I have been told that when they see them they presently go to prayers and bless themselves for the happy sight. I have heard some ignorant seamen discoursing how they have seen them creep, or, as they say, travel about in the scuppers, telling many dismal stories that happened at such times: but I did never see anyone stir out of the place where it was first fixed, except upon deck, where every sea washes it about: neither did I ever see any but when we have had hard rain as well as wind; and therefore do believe it is some jelly: but enough of this.
We continued scudding right before wind and sea from two till seven o'clock in the morning, and then the wind being much abated we set our mizzen again, and brought our ship to the wind, and lay under a mizzen till eleven. Then it fell flat calm, and it continued so for about two hours: but the sky looked very black and rueful, especially in the south-west, and the sea tossed us about like an eggshell for want of wind. About one o'clock in the afternoon the wind sprung up at south-west out of the quarter from whence we did expect it: therefore we presently brailed up our mizzen and wore our ship: but we had no sooner put our ship before the wind but it blew a storm again and rained very hard, though not so violently as the night before: but the wind was altogether as boisterous and so continued till ten or eleven o'clock at night. All which time we scudded and run before the wind very swift, though only with our bare poles, that is, without any sail abroad. Afterwards the wind died away by degrees, and before day we had but little wind and fine clear weather.
I was never in such a violent storm in all my life; so said all the company. This was near the change of the moon: it was two or three days before the change. The 6th day in the morning, having fine handsome weather, we got up our yards again and began to dry ourselves and our clothes for we were all well sopped. This storm had deadened the hearts of our men so much that, instead of going to buy more provision at the same place from whence we came before the storm, or of seeking any more for the island Prata, they thought of going somewhere to shelter before the full moon, for fear of another storm at that time: for commonly, if there is any very bad weather in the month, it is about two or three days before or after the full or change of the moon.
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Project Gutenberg version:
Title: A New Voyage Round the World
Author: William Dampier
eBook No.: 0500461h.html
Edition: 1
Language: English
Character set encoding: HTML--ASCII--7 bit
Date first posted: May 2005
Date most recently updated: May 2005
