James Cook's Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World. James Cook

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       Passage from Dusky Bay to Queen Charlottes Sound, with an Account of some Water Spouts, and of our joining the Adventure.

      1773 May

      After leaving Dusky Bay, as hath been already mentioned, I directed my course along shore for Queen Charlotte's Sound, where I expected to find the Adventure. In this passage we met with nothing remarkable, or worthy of notice, till the 17th at four o'clock in the afternoon. Being then about three leagues to the westward of Cape Stephens; having a gentle gale at west by south, and clear weather, the wind at once flattened to a calm, the sky became suddenly obscured by dark dense clouds, and seemed to forebode much wind. This occasioned as to clew up all our sails, and presently after six water-spouts were seen. Four rose and spent themselves between us and the land; that is, to the south-west of us, the fifth was without us, the sixth first appeared in the south-west, at the distance of two or three miles at least from us. Its progressive motion was to the north-east, not in a straight but in a crooked line, and passed within fifty yards of our stern, without our feeling any of its effects. The diameter of the base of this spout I judged to be about fifty or sixty feet; that is, the sea within this space was much agitated, and foamed up to a great height. From this a tube, or round body, was formed, by which the water or air, or both, was carried in a spiral stream up to the clouds. Some of our people said they saw a bird in the one near us, which was whirled round like the fly of a jack, as it was carried upwards. During the time these spouts lasted, we had now and then light puffs of wind from all points of the compass, with some few slight showers of rain, which generally fell in large drops; and the weather continued thick and hazy for some hours after, with variable light breezes of wind. At length the wind fixed in its old point, and the sky resumed its former serenity. Some of these spouts appeared at times to be stationary; and at other times to have a quick but very unequal progressive motion, and always in a crooked line, sometimes one way and sometimes another; so that, once or twice, we observed them to cross one another. From the ascending motion of the bird, and several other circumstances, it was very plain to us that these spouts were caused by whirlwinds, and that the water in them was violently hurried upwards, and did not descend from the clouds as I have heard some assert. The first appearance of them is by the violent agitation and rising up of the water; and, presently after, you see a round column or tube forming from the clouds above, which apparently descends till it joins the agitated water below. I say apparently, because I believe it not to be so in reality, but that the tube is already formed from the agitated water below, and ascends, though at first it is either too small or too thin to be seen. When the tube is formed, or becomes visible, its apparent diameter increaseth till it is pretty large; after that it decreaseth, and at last it breaks or becomes invisible towards the lower part. Soon after the sea below resumes its natural state, and the tube is drawn, by little and little, up to the clouds, where it is dissipated. The same tube would sometimes have a vertical, and sometimes a crooked or inclined direction. The most rational account I have read of water-spouts, is in Mr. Falconer's Marine Dictionary, which is chiefly collected from the philosophical writings of the ingenious Dr. Franklin. I have been told that the firing of a gun will dissipate them; and I am very sorry I did not try the experiment, as we were near enough, and had a gun ready for the purpose; but as soon as the danger was past, I thought no more about it, being too attentive in viewing these extraordinary meteors At the time this happened, the barometer stood at 29, 75, and the thermometer at 56.

      In coming from Cape Farewell to Cape Stephens, I had a better view of the coast than I had when I passed in my former voyage, and observed that about six leagues to the east of the first-mentioned cape, is a spacious bay, which is covered from the sea by a low point of land. This is, I believe, the same that Captain Tasman anchored in on the 18th of December, 1642, and by him called Murderer's Bay, by reason of some of his men being killed by the natives. Blind Bay, so named by me in my former voyage, lies to the S.E. of this, and seems to run a long way inland to the south; the sight, in this direction, not being bounded by any land. The wind having returned to the west, as already mentioned, we resumed our course to the east; and at day-light the next morning (being the 18th,) we appeared off Queen Charlotte's Sound, where we discovered our consort the Adventure, by the signals she made to us; an event which every one felt with an agreeable satisfaction. The fresh westerly wind now died away, and was succeeded by light airs from the S. and S.W., so that we had to work in with our boats a-head towing. In the doing of this we discovered a rock, which we did not see in my former voyage. It lies in the direction of S. by E. ½ E., distant four miles from the outermost of the Two Brothers, and in a line with the White Rocks, on with the middle of Long Island. It is just even with the surface of the sea, and hath deep water all round it. At noon, Lieutenant Kemp of the Adventure came on board; from whom I learnt that their ship had been here about six weeks. With the assistance of a light breeze, our boats, and the tides, we at six o'clock in the evening, got to an anchor in Ship Cove, near the Adventure, when Captain Furneaux came on board, and gave me the following account of his proceedings, from the time we parted to my arrival here.

      CHAPTER VII.

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       Captain Furneaux's Narrative, from the Time the two Ships were separated, to their joining again in Queen Charlotte's Sound, with some Account of Van Diemen's Land.

      1773 February

      On the 7th of February, 1773, in the morning, the Resolution being then about two miles a-head, the wind shifting then to the westward, brought on a very thick fog; so that we lost sight of her. We soon after heard a gun, the report of which we imagined to be on the larboard beam; we then hauled up S.E., and kept firing a four-pounder every half hour, but had no answer, nor further sight of her; then we kept the course we steered on before the fog came on. In the evening it began to blow hard, and was at intervals more clear, but could see nothing of her, which gave us much uneasiness. We then tacked and stood to the westward, to cruise in the place where we last saw her, according to agreement, in case of separation; but next day came on a very heavy gale of wind and thick weather, that obliged us to bring to, and thereby prevented us reaching the intended spot. However, the wind coming more moderate, and the fog in some measure clearing away, we cruised as near the place as we could get, for three days; when giving over all hopes of joining company again, we bore away for winter quarters, distant fourteen hundred leagues, through a sea entirely unknown and reduced the allowance of water to one quart per day.

      We kept between the latitude of 52° and 53° S., had much westerly wind, hard gales, with squalls, snow and sleet, with a long hollow sea from the S.W., so that we judged there is no land in that quarter. After we reached the longitude of 95° E., we found the variation decrease very fast.

      On the 26th, at night, we saw a meteor of uncommon brightness in the N.N.W. It directed its course to the S.W., with a very great light in the southern sky, such as is known to the northward by the name of Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. We saw the light for several nights running; and, what is remarkable, we saw but one ice island after we parted company with the Resolution, till our making land, though we were most of the time two or three degrees to the southward of the latitude we first saw it in. We were daily attended by great numbers of sea birds, and frequently saw porpoises curiously spotted white and black.

      1773 March

      On the 1st of March we were alarmed with the cry of land by the man at the mast-head, on the larboard beam; which gave us great joy. We immediately hauled our wind and stood for it, but to our mortification were disappointed in a few hours; for, what we took to be land, proved no more than clouds, which disappeared as we sailed towards them. We then bore away, and directed our course towards the land laid down in the charts by the name of Van Diemen's Land, discovered by Tasman in 1642, and laid down in the latitude 44° S., and longitude 140° E., and supposed to join to New Holland.

      On