All this while the storm increased,and the sea,which I had never been upon before,went very high,though nothing like what I have seen many times since;no,nor like what I saw a few days after.But it was enough to affect me then,who was but a young sailor,and had never known anything of the matter.I expected every wave would have swallowed us up,and that every time the ship fell down,as I thought,in the trough or hollow of the sea,we should never rise more;and in this agony of mind I made many vows and resolutions,that if it would please God here to spare my life this one voyage,if ever I got once my foot upon dry land again,I would go directly home to my father,and never set it into a ship again while I lived;that I would take his advice,and never run myself into such miseries as these any more.Now I saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of life,how easy,how comfortably he had lived all his days,and never had been exposed to tempests at sea,or troubles on shore;and I resolved that I would,like a true repenting prodigal,go home to my father.
These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm continued,and indeed some time after;but the next day the wind was abated and the sea calmer,and I began to be a little inured to it.However,I was very grave for all that day,being also a little sea sick still;but towards night the weather cleared up,the wind was quite over,and a charming fine evening followed;the sun went down perfectly clear,and rose so the next morning;and having little or no wind,and a smooth sea,the sun shining upon it,the sight was,as I thought,the most delightful that ever I saw.
I had slept well in the night,and was now no more sea sick but very cheerful,looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before,and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little time after.And now lest my good resolutions should continue,my companion,who had indeed enticed me away,comes to me:‘Well,Bob,’says he,clapping me on the shoulder,‘how do you do after it?I warrant you were frighted,wa'n't you,last night,when it blew but a capful of wind?’‘A capful,d'you call it?’said I;‘'twas a terrible storm.’‘A storm,you fool you,’replies he;‘do you call that a storm?Why,it was nothing at all;give us but a good ship and sea room,and we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that;but you're but a fresh water sailor,Bob.Come,let us make a bowl of punch,and we'll forget all that;d'ye see what charming weather 'tis now?’To make short this sad part of my story we went the old way of all sailors;the punch was made,and I was made drunk with it,and in that one night's wickedness I drowned all my repentance,all my reflections upon my past conduct,and all my resolutions for my future.In a word,as the sea was returned to its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the abatement of that storm,so the hurry of my thoughts being over,my fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by the sea being forgotten,and the current of my former desires returned,I entirely forgot the vows and promises that I made in my distress.I found indeed some intervals of reflection,and the serious thoughts did,as it were,endeavour to return again sometimes;but I shook them off,and roused myself from them as it were from a distemper,and applying myself to drink and company,soon mastered the return of those fits,for so I called them,and I had in five or six days got as complete a victory over conscience as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with it could desire.But I was to have another trial for it still;and Providence,as in such cases generally it does,resolved to leave me entirely without excuse.For if I would not take this for a deliverance,the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened wretch among us would confess both the danger and the mercy.
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth roads;the wind having been contrary and the weather calm,we had made but little way since the storm.Here we were obliged to come to an anchor,and here we lay,the wind continuing contrary,viz.,at south west,for seven or eight days,during which time a great many ships from Newcastle came into the same roads,as the common harbour where the ships might wait for a wind for the river.
We had not,however,rid here so long,but should have tided it up the river,but that the wind blew too fresh;and after we had lain four or five days,blew very hard.However,the roads being reckoned as good as a harbour,the anchorage good,and our ground tackle very strong,our men were unconcerned,and not in the least apprehensive of danger,but spent the time in rest and mirth,after the manner of the sea;but the eighth day in the morning the wind increased,and we had all hands at work to strike our topmasts,and make everything snug and close,that the ship might ride as easy as possible.By noon the sea went very high indeed,and our ship rid forecastle in,shipped several seas,and we thought once or twice our anchor had come home;upon which our master ordered out the sheet anchor,so that we rode with two anchors ahead,and the cables veered out to the bitter end.
