Referring to our talk of last December, when I said I was not unwilling
to send you occasional letters, if anything important should happen, I
do not know of anything that I could think worthy of being published or
made public in your paper except the weather, which always and ever
gives cause for alternate praise and blame, when one is living, so to
speak, out among the sea's breakers, where there is no quietness to
expect on a winter's day, but storms and rough weather as we had in the
last Yule-nights, with a violent storm from the east and with such
tremendous gusts of wind that the pots and pans flew about like birds.
And there is much damage done by the east wind and nothing gained,
because it only drives wreckage out to sea. But it was not quite so bad
as it was in the great storms in the last days of November, which
culminated or reached their highest point on Monday, the 26th November,
when it was rougher than old folk can remember it to have ever been,
with such a tremendous sea that it seemed as if it would reach the
fields that we here at Krydsvig have owned from old times; it almost
touched the cowhouses. After that time we had light frosts with
changeable weather and a smoother sea, which was not covered, but richly
sown, with many sad relics of the storm, mostly deck cargo, which is not
so great a loss, as it is always lying, so to speak, upon expectancy or
adventure; and when it goes, it is a relief to the ship and a great and
especial blessing to these treeless coasts, particularly when it comes
ashore well split up and distributed, a few planks at each place, so
that the Lensmand [Footnote: Sheriff's officer.] cannot see any greater
accumulation at any one place than that he can, with a good conscience,
abandon an auction and let the folk keep what they have been lucky
enough to find or diligent enough to garner in from the sea in their
boats; but this time it did not repay the trouble, because of frost and
an easterly land-wind, which kept the wreck from land for some time. But
now the most of it has come in that is to come at this time, and it may
be long to another time, as we must hope, for the seaman's sake,
although I, for my part, have never been able to join with any
particular devotion in prayers and supplications that we may be free
from storms and foul weather; for our Lord has made the sea thus and not
otherwise, so that there must come storms and tumults in the atmosphere
of the air, and, as a consequence, towering billows. And it seems to me,
further, that we cannot decently turn to the Lord and ask Him to do
something over again or in a different way; but we can well wish each
other God's help and all good luck in danger, and especially good gear
for our own ones, who sail with wit and canniness, while the Englishman
is mostly a demon to sail and go with full steam on in fogs and driving
rain-storms, of which we can expect enough in Januarius month at the
beginning of the new year, which I hope may be a good year for these
coasts, with decent weather, as it may fall out, and something
respectable in the way of wreckage.
Yours very truly,
LAURITZ BOLDEMANN SEEHUS,
Late Master-Pilot.
KRYDSVIG, January 22, 1889.