As I look back on the dangers of our way, and remember how many times
by night and day, aloft and on deck, our men have been exposed to
accident, I cannot refrain from recording my gratitude to the Preserver
of men. One day all hands were around the mainmast hoisting a yard. I
was standing with the captain near the wheel, when we heard a noise
unlike anything which we ever heard on ship board. It lasted only two
or three seconds, but was so peculiar that it was frightful. Was the
ship grating over a sunken rock; had she opened a seam, and was the
water pouring in? Going forward, the men were found standing silently
over one of their number who was lying senseless on deck. One of the
chain runners which hoists a yard twenty-five or thirty feet, had given
way in one of its upper links, and the chain had come down through the
block to the deck. This was the noise which alarmed us. In falling, the
chain struck one of the men on the shoulder and he fell senseless. He
was soon restored, but he was laid up a fortnight. Had the blow been
upon his head, the weight of the chain made it probable that the hurt
would have been more serious. This was the only accident which we had
to record during the whole voyage.