DECEMBER 6.
I had no idea of the expense of building and preserving a
ship. That in which I am at present cost 30,000l. at its outset.
Last year the repairs amounted to 14,0001.; and in a voyage to
the East Indies they were more than 20,000
1. In its return last
year from Jamaica it was on the very brink of shipwreck. A
storm had driven it into Bantry Bay, and there was no other
refuge from the winds than Bear Haven, whose entrance was
narrow and difficult; however, a gentleman from Castletown
came on board, and very obligingly offered to pilot the ship.
He was one of the first people in the place, had been the owner
of a vessel himself, was most thoroughly acquainted with every
of the haven, &e. &c., and so on they went. There was
one sunken rock, and that about ten feet in diameter; the
knew it, and warned his gentleman-pilot to keep a little
to the eastward. " My dear friend," answered the Irish
"now do just make yourself asy; I know well enough
what we are about; we are as clear of the rock as if we were in
Sea, by Jasus;"-upon which the vessel struck upon
and there she struck. The captain fell to swearing and
is hair. " G-d-you, sir! didn't I tell you to keep
Dam'me , she's on the rock!"" Oh! well, my
Dear, she now
on the rock, and, in a few minutes, you know,
why she'll be
off the rock: to be sure, I'd have taken my oath
that the rock was two hundred and fifty feet on the other side
of her, but—"-"Two hundred and fifty feet! why, the
channel is not two hundred and fifty feet wide itself! and as to
getting her off, bumping up against this rock, it can only be with a
great hole in her side."-" Poh ! now, bother, my dear! why
sure-"-" Leave the ship, sir; dam'me, sir, get out of my
ship this moment! " Instead of which, with the most smiling
and obliging air in the world, the Irishman turned to console
the female passengers. " Make yourselves
asy , ladies, pray make
yourself perfectly
asy ; but, upon my soul, I believe your captain's
mad ; no danger in life! only
make yourselves
asy , I say ;
for the ship lies on the rock as safe and as quiet, by Jasus, as if
she were lying on a mud bank! " Luckily the weather was so
perfectly calm, that the ship having once touched the rock with
her keel bumped. no more. It was low water; she wanted but
five inches to float her, and when the tide rose she drifted off',
and with but little harm done. The gentleman-pilot then
thought proper to return on shore, took a very polite leave of
the lady passengers, and departed with all the urbanity possible;
only thinking the captain the strangest person that he had ever
met with ; and wondering that any man of common sense could
be put out of temper by such a trifle.
