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Sept 17 99
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Sir Joseph
It is with great sorrow that I now write to you of my unpleasant situation. We sailed from Spithead on the 6th instant, with a fair wind down the channel. On the 10th at night it began to blow pretty hard, and still continued on the 11th; in the afternoon of which our tiller broke, which was with great difficulty for to get renewed. When night came on, it blew a very hard gale, which had it lasted long we must certainly have gone to the bottom; indeed I never looked for any other in the present state the ship was in. On the morning of the 12th it was found that the rudder was parting from the ship, and the stern post thought to be strained. As far as I am capable of judging, we have got but a few of able seamen to work her,which causes great confusion when necessity is required. In the early part of the gale I observed that the officers attention was occupied by the loss of the tiller, whereby the hatches were neglected being battened down, and the pumps not set to work. During the night the ship made near 5 foot of water, and principally down the hatches, which evil might have been prevented if the officers had once though thought of it, for most have of the men at that time were not employed in any
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