Page 23 - Voyage from Boularderie to Waipu

ISSUE : Issue 69

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1995/8/1

hearted villian, who huddled and packed them into his ship close enough to be compared to a slaver, regardless either of our bodi? ly comfort or our valuable lives, or of anything that would tend to our well being. What but a heartless, souless and a heartless wretch like himself, would be cruel enough to pack 32 souls in a space small enough to contain 6 persons, and the half of that room stowed up with part of their luggage, and the rest exposed to all kinds of weather and to the mercy of the waves. Our Capt. true enough is a very nice man, but his niceness is only a poor substitute, in place of our health, wealth and all, and I verily believe he is not able to repair the loss if it so hap? pens, in any other manner. No doubt the vessel is strong and stiff enough and that's the only merited point about her. She was leaky above and below, wet and unsteady and not such a fast sailing vessel as was reported. So far now as the eye can reach There's nothing to be seen But rolling mountains white as milk And moonlit sky sublime. About 2 A.M. the gale continued rising, and the sea very heavy, we were running with close reefed topsails, foretop mast staysail, and mizzen spanker. From 2 A.M. till daylight the gale continued 6th day out Jan. 1,1858j blowing with redoubled fury. About noon it cleared up and the wind became more moderate, but the sea continued running mountains high, and the vessel rolling awfully. About 3 P.M. we shook some of the reefs out of the sails and running about 9 or 10 knots per hour, the sea was coming in on deck, from eve? ry quarter. A lot of us were sitting on the quarter deck for safe? ty but a heavy sea broke in and gave us a tiiorough good duck? ing. I was almost all the afternoon, hanging up in the rigging to dry myself. A little before dark, the cry of "sail ho" rang along the decks; it was the first sail we espied since we weighed anchor, however, she did not come within hailing distance. But we made her out to be a small Brig returning to England from the West Indies. There was a vast difference between our Christmas in Kelly's Cove and our New Year's here: on the former we could not be seen on deck with the cold, but on the latter it was warm enough to stand on deck all day in our shirt sleeves. While I am writing this I am sitting in the crosstree which is the cold? est part of the ship, yet I feel quite comfortable in my shirt sleeves, considering the circumstances, we enjoyed our N.Y. pretty well, and I've seen some aboard, quite funny, however everything passed off pleasantly. About dark we shook all the reefs out, and set the foresail. Through the night the wind continued fair but the ship rolled a great deal. Old year farewell and welcome New With all the joys and cares To us now everything is new The climate scene and sky Farewell the chilly climate cold Which used to bite us sore Thrice welcome what we made our joys Our joys may it increase. Could the control of the winds be given into our own hands, 7th day out ' '? could not make them suit us better than T '7 1 ?'? '?y ''' been. We had scarcely anything but Jan. 2, loSoJ fair 'yjnj sj'ce we left port. The glorious dawn again broke forth with a clear and beautiftil pale sky. Sol, the god of day, rose in all his splendour, and infused his warmth all around, the breeze still continued fair, and the 4 pages of Cape Breton Craftspeople You can meet them face-to-face. CapeBretcn ISLAND MATS - FRAMES - PRINTS Paper Tole Classes & Seminars Huge Selection of Prints • Dry Mounting WE SHIP ANYWHERE! 27 Wilson Road Reserve Mines 9'asterCard & 'ViSlA. S'kctpud Cape Breton, Nova Scotia Phone (902) 849-5991 Folk Art by William D. Roach Come and enjoy the naive, whimsical, colourful and happy creations by folk artist William Roach. Daily Demonstrations. We look forward to meeting you and making your trip unforgettable. Sunset Art Gallery, Cheticamp, NS BOE IHO • (902) 224-2119 owner/operator open daily May 1 - Oct. 15,9 am to 6 pm, or by appointment Linda Roach Clay Plant Pots playful, rusticy elegant' definitely unusual The Pottery Garden Drop by the studio and see pots taking shape 15 min. west of St. Peters, 20 min. east of Dundee Resort ROBERTA • RICHMOND COUNTY • CAPE BRETON • (902) 535-2898 Cape Breton BITS W' PIECES Cape7r:::TarU. • Souvenirs Made with We're proud of Cape Breton Craftspeople. You can locate them all across Cape Breton....

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