Robert Veitch

“ The wind came after this from the land, and almost opposite to the usual point a very faint air; and the thunder was frequent and close to the ships, which lay near each other, but the fog and rain prevented their seeing each other; but they often trembled and shook by the explosion of the thunder. One of these claps burst upon the country ship, which by this time had her top-masts struck; that is, lowered down along the lower-masts. This clap carried away and burst to pieces all the part of the lower-mast from where the yard is caried aloft to within six or seven feet of the upper deck. ”

“ In great ships the masts are composed of three parts, erected upon one another, the lowermost part is called by its proper name, the middlemost part is called the top-mast, and the uppermost part the top-gallant-mast. The mast, which was here damaged, was the main-mast, or principal mast of the ship, and which stands near the middle ”

“ The head and heel parts of the masts are always covered with tar mixed into a consistence with lamp black, and this being frequently repeated, it forms at last a covering of the thickness of a crown, and sometimes a quarter of an inch; through which as the Sun cannot pierce, it is commonly without flaw or rent; but the middlemost part, upon which the sail slips up and down, is always rubbed with tallow, or grease, or hogs lard, to make it more slippery ”

“ Luckily before the second, the men, who were upon the quarter deck, in number about twenty, had time to retire under the auning, which is a projection of the deck of the cabin to shelter from the sun or rain ”