April.  Wednesday 2.

On the 2nd in the morning the wind, which had blown fresh all night from the north-west, came round to the south-west and increased to a heavy gale.  At six in the morning the storm exceeded what I had ever met with before; and the sea, from the frequent shifting of the wind, running in contrary directions, broke exceeding high.  Our ship however lay to very well under a main and fore-stay sail.  The gale continued with severe squalls of hail and sleet the remainder of this and all the next day.

Friday 4.

On the 4th the wind was less violent but far from moderate.  With so much bad weather I found it necessary to keep a constant fire night and day; and one of the watch always attended to dry the people’s wet clothes:  and this I have no doubt contributed as much to their health as to their comfort.

Our companions in this in hospitable region were albatrosses and two beautiful kinds of birds, the small blue petrel and pintada.  A great many of these were frequently about the wake of the ship, which induced the people to float a line with hooks baited to endeavour to catch them and their attempts were successful.  The method they used was to fasten the bait a foot or two before the hook and, by giving the line a sudden jerk when the bird was at the bait, it was hooked in the feet or body.

Sunday 6.

On the 6th the weather was moderate and continued so till the 9th with the wind veering between the north-west and south-west; of which we were able to take advantage.

Monday 7.

On the 7th observed the variation 27 degrees 9 minutes east; our latitude 60 degrees 24 minutes south and longitude 75 degrees 54 minutes west.

Wednesday 9.

On the 9th at noon we were in latitude 59 degrees 31 minutes south and our longitude 76 degrees 58 minutes west, which is farther to the west than we had yet been.  The weather was now unfavourable again, blowing strong from the westward with a high sea.

On the 10th we saw some fish which appeared spotted and about the size of bonetos:  these were the only fish we had seen in this high latitude.

Saturday 12.

The stormy weather continued with a great sea.  The ship now began to complain and required to be pumped every hour; which was no more than we had reason to expect from such a continuance of gales of wind and high seas.  The decks also became so leaky that it was obliged to allot the great cabin, of which I made little use except in fine weather, to those people who had wet berths to hang their hammocks in, and by this means the between decks was less crowded.

Every morning all the hammocks were taken down from where they hung, and when the weather was too bad to keep them upon deck they were put in the cabin; so that the between decks were cleaned daily and aired with fires if the hatchways could not be opened.  With all this bad weather we had the additional mortification to find at the end of every day that we were losing ground; for notwithstanding our utmost exertions and keeping on the most advantageous tacks (which if the weather had been at all moderate would have sufficiently answered our purpose) yet the greater part of the time we were doing little better than drifting before the wind.