25 A vary rough morning all sea sick we stoped at
cooked dinner on land & lawy by the
wharf untill sun set ^4 oclok^ & started on the jour
ney untill 12 oclock at night when a [FIGURE] tremendious
storm & wind arose which made the
as rough as it could be by the force of wind
& such a scenery as quickly followed I nev
er before witnessed in all my travels either by sea or
land on water or earth. The captain of the
Chesepeak with other officers, hands & passeng
ers mostly expected to go to the bottom to have
Judged from outward appearances I should
think there was twenty chances of being
lost to one of being saved yet I did not once
expect during the whole scenery to be lost for
I expected & felt that the Lord would savae
us from a watery grave by some means we
were about 40 miles from land at about 12
oclock at night when I was awoke from a
sound sweet sleep in my birrth by the cry
of some one yaying we shall all be lost the
first thought that entered my mind was I
make No calculations on being lost I however
leaped out of my birth onto my feet & went on
to the uper deck I immediately saw we were
in eminant danger of being wrecked the wind
blew almost a & the waves were
running over her bow in a dreadful manner the boat
was rather heayvy loaded. their was about 300
passengers on board with a large quantity of
luggage 8 Jack Asses some geese & piggs were
standing on the bow of the boat next to them
was 40 cords of wood piled up this with
other loading okept the bow down in such
a manner that it was judged their was
50 tons of water on her bow deck at a time
at one time the bow run under water & some
thought she would never right one wave
that broke over set the Asses afloat
broke the petetion between them & the steerag
cabin & washed two of the Asses down
threw into the births among men woman &
children it killed one of the Asses in the
fall the Asses & water together drove all the
steerage passengers out of their cabin on
deck about this time while the boat was
labouring hard against wind & water she
broke one of her wheel chains I then herd
the cry all is lost, but about 30 of us
passengers caught hold of the 2two detached
ends of the chain & held them together
untill they were mended with ropes the bote
lay partly upon her side it tore up the floor &
broke down the births in the steerage state rooms
oposite of us & we expected evry moment
ours would share the same fate in one instance
the waves broke over the upper deck it took
four men to manage the wheel they tried to
turn the boat three times but could not untill
day light when it was accomplished & returned
to the at about 3 oclock being
about 24 hours in the gale they again took on
40 cords of wood as they had flung 20 cords
overboard in the storm to lighten the bow of the
boat orders were given to that effect we rem
ained at the Manatau Island untill next morning
I felt thankful to God to once more set my
foot on land I felt that the Lord herd our
& deliverd us. their was praying, crying,
singing & swaring at the same time in the
mids of the storm it was a trying time to all
