_First Adventures at Sea--Experience of a Maritime Life--Voyage to
Guinea_
On the 1st of September, 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London.
Never any young adventurer’s misfortunes, I believe, began sooner,
or continued longer than mine. The ship was no sooner gotten out of
the Humber, but the wind began to blow, and the waves to rise in a
most frightful manner; and as I had never been at sea before, I was
most inexpressibly sick in body, and terrified in my mind. I began
now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and how justly I was
overtaken by the judgment of heaven for my wickedness in leaving my
father’s house, and abandoning my duty; all the good counsel of my
parents, my father’s tears and my mother’s entreaties, came now fresh
into my mind, and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of
hardness which it has been since, reproached me with the contempt of
advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.
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 once got
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, came to me: “Well, Bob,”
said he, clapping me on the shoulder, “how do you do after it? I
warrant you were frightened, 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,” replied 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, endeavor 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 harbor 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 harbor, 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 top-masts, 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.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed, and now I began to see
terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves. The
master, though vigilant to the business of preserving the ship, yet
as he went in and out of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly to
himself say several times, “Lord be merciful to us, we shall be all
lost, we shall be all undone”; and the like. During these first hurries
I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the steerage, and
cannot describe my temper; I could ill re-assume the first penitence,
which I had so apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself against; I
thought the bitterness of death had been past, and that this would be
nothing too, like the first. But when the master himself came by me,
as I said just now, and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully
frightened; I got up out of my cabin, and looked out. But such a dismal
sight I never saw; the sea went mountains high, and broke upon us every
three or four minutes; when I could look about, I could see nothing
but distress round us. Two ships that rode near us we found had cut
their masts by the board, being deep laden; and our men cried out,
that a ship which rode about a mile ahead of us was foundered. Two
more ships being driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads
to sea at all adventures, and that with not a mast standing. The light
ships fared the best, as not so much laboring in the sea; but two or
three of them drove, and came close by us, running away with only their
sprit-sail out before the wind.
Toward evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship
to let them cut away the fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to.
But the boatswain protesting to him that if he did not the ship would
founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the fore-mast, the
main-mast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged
to cut her away also, and make a clear deck.
Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who was
but a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but
a little. But if I can express at this distance the thoughts I had
about me at that time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon
account of my former convictions, and the having returned from them
to the resolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at death
itself; and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me into such
a condition, that I can by no words describe it. But the worst was
not come yet; the storm continued with such fury, that the seamen
themselves acknowledged they had never known a worse.
We had a good ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed in the sea,
that the seamen every now and then cried out she would founder. It was
my advantage in one respect, that I did not know what they meant by
founder till I inquired.
However, the storm was so violent, that I saw what is not often seen,
the master, the boatswain, and some others more sensible than the rest,
at their prayers, and expecting every moment that the ship would go
to the bottom. In the middle of the night, and under all the rest of
our distresses, one of the men that had been down on the purpose to
see cried out we had sprung a leak; another said there was four foot
of water in the hold. Then all hands were called to the pump. At that
very word my heart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell backwards
upon the side of my bed where I sat, into the cabin. However, the men
roused me, and told me, that I, that was able to do nothing before, was
as well able to pump as another; at which I stirred up and went to the
pump and worked very heartily. While this was doing, the master seeing
some light colliers, who, not able to ride out the storm, were obliged
to slip and run away to sea, and would come near us, ordered to fire
a gun as a signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what that meant,
was so surprised that I thought the ship had broke, or some dreadful
thing had happened. In a word, I was so surprised that I fell down in a
swoon. As this was a time when everybody had his own life to think of,
nobody minded me, or what was become of me; but another man stepped up
to the pump, and thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking
I had been dead; and it was a great while before I came to myself.
We worked on, but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent
that the ship would founder, and though the storm began to abate a
little, yet as it was not possible she could swim till we might run
into a port, so the master continued firing guns for help; and a light
ship, who had rid it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help
us. It was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was
impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to lie near the
ship’s side, till at last the men rowing very heartily, and venturing
their lives to save ours, our men cast them a rope over the stern with
a buoy to it, and then veered it out a great length, which they after
great labor and hazard took hold of, and we hauled them close under
our stern, and got all into their boat. It was to no purpose for them
or us after we were in the boat to think of reaching to their own ship,
so all agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore
as much as we could, and our master promised them that if the boat was
staved upon shore he would make it good to their master; so partly
rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to the norward, sloping
towards the shore almost as far as Winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but
we saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was
meant by a ship foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I had hardly
eyes to look up when the seamen told me she was sinking; for from that
moment they rather put me into the boat than that I might be said to go
in; my heart was as it were dead within me, partly with fright, partly
with horror of mind and the thoughts of what was yet before me.
While we were in this condition, the men yet laboring at the oar to
bring the boat near the shore, we could see, when, our boat mounting
the waves, we were able to see the shore, a great many people running
along the shore to assist us when we should come near. But we made
but slow way towards the shore, nor were we able to reach the shore,
till being past the lighthouse at Winterton, the shore falls off to
the westward towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a little the
violence of the wind. Here we got in, and though not without much
difficulty got all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to
Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we were used with great humanity
as well by the magistrates of the town, who assigned us good quarters,
as by particular merchants and owners of ships, and had money given us
sufficient to carry us either to London or back to Hull, as we thought
fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull and have gone home,
I had been happy, and my father, an emblem of our blessed Savior’s
parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing the ship
I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth Road, it was a great while
before he had any assurance that I was not drowned.
But my ill-fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could
resist; and though I had several times loud calls from my reason and my
more composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power to do it. I know
not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling
decree that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction,
even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes
open. Certainly nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery
attending, and which it was impossible for me to escape, could have
pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my
most retired thoughts, and against two such visible instructions as I
had met with in my first attempt.
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who was the
master’s son, was now less forward than I. The first time he spoke to
me after we were at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for
we were separated in the town to several quarters--I say, the first
time he saw me, it appeared his tone was altered, and looking very
melancholy and shaking his head, asked me how I did, and telling his
father who I was, and how I had come this voyage only for a trial in
order to get farther abroad, his father turning to me with a very grave
and concerned tone, “Young man,” said he, “you ought never to go to sea
any more, you ought to take this for a plain and visible token, that
you are not to be a seafaring man.” “Why, sir,” said I, “will you go
to sea no more?” “That is another case,” said he; “it is my calling,
and therefore, my duty; but as you made this voyage for a trial, you
see what a taste Heaven has given you of what you are to expect if you
persist; perhaps this is all befallen us on your account, like Jonah in
the ship of Tarshish. Pray,” continued he, “what are you? and on what
account did you go to sea?” Upon that I told him some of my story, at
the end of which he burst out with a strange kind of passion. “What
had I done,” said he, “that such an unhappy wretch should come into
my ship? I would not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for
a thousand pounds.” This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his
spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was
farther than he could have authority to go. However, he afterwards
talked very gravely to me, exhorted me to go back to my father, and
not tempt Providence to my ruin; told me I might see a visible hand
of Heaven against me. “And, young man,” said he, “depend upon it, if
you do not go back, wherever you go you will meet with nothing but
disasters and disappointments, till your father’s words are fulfilled
upon you.”
We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw him no
more; which way he went, I know not. As for me, having some money in
my pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as on the
road, had many struggles with myself what course of life I should take,
and whether I should go home, or go to sea.
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my
thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at
among the neighbors, and should be ashamed to see, not my father and
mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since often
observed how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind
is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in
such cases, viz., that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed
to repent; not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be
esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make
them be esteemed wise men.
In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain what
measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irresistible
reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed a while, the
remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off; and as that abated,
the little motion I had in my desires to return wore off with it, till
at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a
voyage.
That evil influence which carried me first away from my father’s
house, that hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising
my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as
to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even
command of my father--I say, the same influence, whatever it was,
presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I
went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa, or, as our sailors
vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not ship
myself as a sailor, whereby, though I might indeed have worked a little
harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I had learned the duty and
office of a foremast man, and in time might have qualified myself for a
mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was always my fate
to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my pocket,
and good clothes upon my back, I would always go on board in the habit
of a gentleman; and so I neither had any business in the ship, or
learned to do any.
It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London,
which does not always happen to such loose and misguided young fellows
as I then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for
them very early; but it was not so with me. I first fell acquainted
with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea, and who,
having had very good success there, was resolved to go again; and who,
taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at all disagreeable
at that time, hearing me say I had a mind to see the world, told me if
I would go the voyage with him I should be at no expense; I should be
his messmate and his companion; and if I could carry anything with me,
I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would permit, and
perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.
I embraced the offer, and, entering into a strict friendship with
this captain, who was an honest and plain-dealing man, I went the
voyage with him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by
the disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very
considerably, for I carried about £40 in such toys and trifles as the
captain directed me to buy. This £40 I had mustered together by the
assistance of some of my relations whom I corresponded with, and who, I
believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as
that to my first adventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my
adventures, and which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend
the captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the
mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an account
of the ship’s course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand
some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor. For, as he
took delight to introduce me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word,
this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant; for I brought home
five pounds nine ounces of gold dust for my adventure, which yielded
me in London at my return almost £300, and this filled me with those
aspiring thoughts which have since so completed my ruin.
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly, that
I was continually sick, being thrown into a violent fever by the
excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon the
coast, from the latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself.