cargoes of grain from Ireland;
another from the Baltic with Norawa deals; and a third from Bristol,
where she had been on a charter for some Greenock merchants.

It happened that, for a time, there had been contrary winds, against
which no vessel could enter the port, and the ships, whereof I have been
speaking, were all lying together at anchor in the bay, waiting a change
of weather. These five vessels were owned among ourselves, and their
crews consisted of fathers and sons belonging to the place, so that, both
by reason of interest and affection, a more than ordinary concern was
felt for them; for the sea was so rough, that no boat could live in it to
go near them, and we had our fears that the men on board would be very
ill off. Nothing, however, occurred but this natural anxiety, till the
Saturday, which was Yule. In the morning the weather was blasty and
sleety, waxing more and more tempestuous till about mid-day, when the
wind checked suddenly round from the nor-east to the sou-west, and blew a
gale as if the prince of the powers of the air was doing his utmost to
work mischief. The rain blattered, the windows clattered, the
shop-shutters flapped, pigs from the lum-heads came rattling down like
thunder-claps, and the skies were dismal both with cloud and carry. Yet,
for all that, there was in the streets a stir and a busy visitation
between neighbours, and every one went to their high windows, to look at
the five poor barks that were warsling against the strong arm of the
elements of the storm and the ocean.

Still the lift gloomed, and the wind roared, and it was as doleful a
sight as ever was seen in any town afflicted with calamity, to see the
sailors' wives, with their red cloaks about their heads, followed by
their hirpling and disconsolate bairns, going one after another to the
kirkyard, to look at the vessels where their helpless breadwinners were
battling with the tempest. My heart was really sorrowful, and full of a
sore anxiety to think of what might happen to the town, whereof so many
were in peril, and to whom no human magistracy could extend the arm of
protection. Seeing no abatement of the wrath of heaven, that howled and
roared around us, I put on my big-coat, and taking my staff in my hand,
having tied down my hat with a silk handkerchief, towards gloaming I
walked likewise to the kirkyard, where I beheld such an assemblage of
sorrow, as few men in situation have ever been put to the trial