A
constant look-out was necessary; for any of these pieces, coming
with the heave of the sea, were large enough to have knocked a hole in
the ship, and that would have been the end of us; for no boat (even if
we could have got one out) could have lived in such a sea; and no
man could have lived in a boat in such weather. To make our
condition still worse, the wind came out due east, just after sundown,
and it blew a gale dead ahead, with hail and sleet, and a thick fog,
so that we could not see half the length of the ship. Our chief
reliance, the prevailing westerly gales, was thus cut off; and here we
were, nearly seven hundred miles to the westward of the Cape, with a
gale dead from the eastward, and the weather so thick that we could
not see the ice with which we were surrounded, until it was directly
under our bows. At four, P. M. (it was then quite dark) all hands were
called, and sent aloft in a violent squall of hall and rain, to take
in sail. We had now all got on our "Cape Horn rig"- thick boots,
south-westers coming down over our neck and ears, thick trowsers and
jackets, and some with oil-cloth suits over all.
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