ould not be taken
during the passage. It is, therefore, not remarkable that under the
circumstances, and with a heavy sea following the ship, the judgment of
the navigators was at fault and the ship overran her reckoning.

On the eighth day after the Lady Madison left the dock, the atmosphere
being hazy and the temperature unusually cool, I was standing on the lee
side of the forecastle when something afar off on the bow caught my eye.
It looked like a massive fortress on a mountain rock of crystal. Its
appearance, different from anything I had ever seen on the ocean,
excited my wonder. Could it be a cloud? I pointed it out to one of my
watchmates, who, being familiar with such appearances, instantly called
out, "Ice, ho!"

There was a commotion throughout the ship. "Ice!" exclaimed the captain,
rushing up the companion-way, spyglass in hand. "Ice! Where-away? 'Tis
impossible! We cannot be near the Grand Bank!"

The ice island was now clearly perceptible, looming up through the thin
fog, "a fixed fact," which could not be shaken. We were on the eastern
edge of the Bank of Newfoundland. In eight days the ship had run nearly
two thousand miles. Although this may not be considered a remarkable
feat for a modern clipper of giant proportions, it was an instance of
fast sailing and favorable breezes seldom exceeded in those days.

Had the wind continued unchanged in strength or direction after we
reached the Bank, we should have made the passage to New York in
twelve days. But its force was spent. Instead of feeling grateful and
expressing satisfaction at such a noble run, the captain, and I believe
every man on board, as is usual in such cases, grumbled intolerably
when the change took place! Head winds and calms prevailed, and ten days
elapsed before we greeted the highlands of Neversink. We passed inside
of Sandy Hook on the 4th of April 1812, having made a passage of
eighteen days from Liverpool to anchorage off the Battery!

While beating through the narrows we passed the ship Honestus, which
sailed from Liverpool about forty days before the Lady Madison left that
port, and had been battling with head winds the whole distance across
the Atlantic.

Chapter XVII. ADRIFT IN NEW YORK

When the ship Lady Madison arrived in New York there was quite a stir
among the mercantile community. Congress was engaged in important
deliberations, and it was whispered, that in secret session, an embargo
was about to be laid o