mss142-vasilevShishmarev-i3-018

- 68 -

could not sail close hauled and remain on a course close to
the wind. The waves tossed it to such an extent that the
leeward cannons were submurged in water at every surge. The
listing of the sloop impeded all work, and attempts to put
up a foresail to incline it leeward [sic] were unsuccessful.
The masts creaked in their steps, the topmasts bent into
arcs, and we waited with trepidation that all of them would
topple over, which, during such a hurricane, would mean our
certain destruction.

But, thank God, the shrouds held up; the breaking of the
main and fore topmasts reduced the weight above; and mean-
while, we succeded in cutting a hole in the mizzen, whereupon,
in one minute, all that remained of it was in shreds. The
sloop straightened up, we put up the foresail, and it inclined
to leeward. Removing so far as possible the topsails and
yards hanging in the rigging, we put the storm mizzen up again,
hoisted the foresail, and lay to under it. ------------- The raging
hurricane continued for almost 24 hours and created a most
awful turbulence. Our poor sloop groaned in all its struc-
ture. It was tossed so violently that it took water from both
sides. Never, either before or after, in storms of seven or
nine days, did we suffer so much, or fear so much as in these
24 hours. But the excellent construction of our sloop saved
us. Tossed by most terribly heavy seas, and despite the fact
that the heavy waves, breaking along the sides, often fell on
the deck with all their ponderous mass, the water on it in-
creased possibly only an inch or two higher than in normal seas.