University of Virginia Library

NOVEMBER 12. (Sunday.)

The wind was contrary, and we had to beat up the whole way. We did not reach the Downs till past four o'clock, and, as there were above sixty vessels arrived before us, we had some difficulty in finding a safe berth. At length we anchored in the Lower Roads, about four miles off Deal. We can see very clearly the double lights in the vessel moored off the Goodwin sands: it is constantly inhabited by two families, who reside there alternately every fortnight, except when the weather delays the exchange. The "Sir Godfrey Webster" is a vessel of 600 tons, and was formerly in the East India service. I have a very clean cabin, a place for my books, and every thing is much more comfortable than I expected; the wind, however, is completely west, the worst that we could have, and we must not even expect a change till the full moon. The captain pointed out a man to me today, who had been with him in a violent storm off the Bermudas. For six hours together, the flashes of lightning were so unintermitting that the eye could not sustain them: at one time, the ship seemed to be completely in a blaze; and the man in question (who was then standing at the wheel, near the captain) suddenly cried out, "I don't know what has happened to me, but I can neither see nor stand ;" and he fell down upon the deck. He was taken up and carried below; and it appeared that the lightning had affected his eyes and legs, in a degree to make him both blind and lame, though the captain, who was standing by his side had received no injury: in three or four days the man was quite well again.

In this storm no less than thirteen vessels were dismasted, or otherwise shattered by the lightning.