ne," I slid down the topmast cross-trees, caught hold of the weather
top-gallant backstay, and came on deck much faster than I went aloft! My
feet had hardly touched the deck when a gust struck the brig with a fury
which I have seldom seen surpassed. It rushed upon us like an avalanche
on a hamlet in an Alpine valley. Halliards, sheets, and tacks were
let go, but the yards were still braced up, and the sails could not be
clewed down. Before the vessel could get before the wind her lee side
was buried in the water. The conviction seized every mind that a
capsize was inevitable, and there was a general rush towards the weather
gunwale, and a desperate clutching at the shrouds. At this critical
moment the main-topmast snapped off like a pipe stem, just above the
cap, and carried with it the fore-top-gallant mast. The brig righted,
fell off before the wind, scudded like a duck, dragging the broken
spars, and her sails torn to ribbons; and a cold shudder crept over me
when I thought of the appalling danger from which by sliding down the
backstay, I had so narrowly escaped.

When we struck soundings off the English Channel, the word was given to
the boatswain to bend the cables and get the anchors over the bows. The
wind was blowing hard from the northward, with violent squalls and a
short head sea, and Captain Mott showed no disposition to reduce the
canvas in order to lighten our labors, but carried sail and drove the
vessel as if he was running from a pirate. The brig frequently plunged
her knight-heads under water, deluging every man on the forecastle with
sheets of salt water. In the mean time the captain, and also the mate,
dry-shod on the quarter-deck, grinned, and winked at each other, at
witnessing our involuntary ablutions, with the mercury at the freezing
point, while subjected to this severe course of hydropathic treatment,
and doing work which, under ordinary circumstances, could have been
accomplished in a few hours.

Reefing a topsail in a gale is an evolution simple in itself; and when
the sail is placed by the skill of the officer of the deck in a proper
condition, the work aloft can be accomplished in five minutes, even by
a bungling crew. But Captain Mott seemed to take pleasure in placing
obstacles in the way of the ready performance of any important duty, and
held the crew accountable for any extraordinary delay. Thus in reefing
topsails, the men were sometimes half an hour on the yard, endeavoring
in va