“Plenty of rolling all night so had only very little sleep for a change. Early this morning we only had 8 sails up as it was blowing a stiff breeze & we were doing 10 knots an hour. It is the tallest sea today that we have had yet & we are continually shipping large quantities of water.
Our shanty naturally suffered very much & is now in anything but a comfortable way. They say that last voyage during the hurricane one of the men was washed clean out of his berth & carried to the wheel while another wave took the man at the wheel back to his bunk. This voyage does not seem to be quite so full of incidents but should it occur I will report. Bed at 10pm”
Extract from A.Whelen’s Australia travel journal sailing from England in 1878 aboard the iron clipper ‘Hesperides’
Sounds hideous. I’m afraid I am not one to like the sea and to contend with huge waves that are flooding the boat, too scary for me! I have thoroughly enjoyed following this trip Linda. 🙂