The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2 - Online Library of ...

Online Library of Liberty: The Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris, vol. 2
fell from the shrouds into the sea and was drowned; for, though they threw him a rope
and he got hold of it, he had not strength to keep his hold. On examining his chest
they find a great deal of clothes of a kind much finer than is generally used by
seamen. His manners, they say, were mild and gentle, and that he was not a good
sailor; from all which it is to be conjectured that he had seen better days, and adds one
more to the numerous victims of the French Revolution.”
“I find [November 15th] that the captain has not above twenty days’ provisions left
for his crew, and we have something more than five hundred miles before we are up
with the Hook.”
“At midnight [November 29th] the mate told me we were on soundings, and from the
account of the currents we ought to have been so, but this morning we can get no
bottom. I am therefore determined to trouble myself no more with keeping a
reckoning, since either currents, or, what is more probable, the inability of the men at
the helm, render all calculation little more than mere conjecture.”
“To-day [November 30th] we see a schooner from Block Island, so we stand on for
Montauk Point, with a view of getting into Rhodes Island Harbor.”
The question on the 1st of December was whether to run blindly on and try to make
Montauk Point, with a view to getting into Rhode Island Harbor, or be surprised by a
change of wind to the northwest, which would “oblige the Ocean to seek refuge in the
West Indies.” Quite uncertain where he was and what to do, the captain applied to
Morris for advice. “I tell him that if I were in his situation, wanting provisions, I
would certainly run into the first port or place where I could secure myself against
being blown off; that I think, moreover, the passage through the Sound is a very safe
one.” Just at this moment a schooner from Baltimore informed the captain of the
Ocean of his position regarding Montauk Point, and that evening the vessel was safely
anchored in Rhode Island Harbor. Dirty weather, snow, and rain made the voyage
through the Sound for some days impossible; and it was not until the 12th of
December, after innumerable worries and anxieties, that the party, having transferred
themselves and their luggage to another vessel, started for New York. Here again the
delays, by reason of the weather and inefficient and drunken seamen, were to the last
degree harassing.
“We had hopes of getting off last night, but were deceived, and so must build up a
new fabric of hope for the night to come. Patience, patience,” Morris says, in the diary
of the 12th, but the hope was again futile, for after reaching Point Judith, “a tedious
and dangerous business,” they were obliged to put back to Newport, there to remain
till the 19th, when they made a new departure.
“This morning [December 26th] is employed by me in sleeping, as I was awake all
last night, partly from the tempest and partly from my care of little Poupon, Madame
Leray’s child, whose nurse brought him to me to keep out of the water with which her
bed was overflowed.”
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