2. Rear Admiral Bartholomew James, who was serving as a master's mate in the Orpheus, describes the storm in his journal as follows:

... We kept to the northward, notwithstanding the season of the year, and on the 6th of November, meeting with a heavy gale of wind and shipping a tremendous sea over the starboard chesstree, we lost a fine cutter of twenty-four feet keel off the larboard skids, together with some of the rails and carlings of the head. From the 7th in the evening, at which time the gale ceased, to the 10th in the morning, we had very tolerable weather; when, lying with our topsails on the cap and courses hauled up, in a stark calm and without the least appearance of bad weather, a sudden gust of wind obliged us to clap the ship before it. The wind continued to freshen and change a quarter of the compass at a time, raising such a prodigious sea as I never before saw equalled. The first attack of the wind on the ship carried away our topsail sheets, clewlines and buntlines. The main clew-garnets, buntlines and leechlines also broke immediately, and the main topmast stay-sail jib and several other sails, with the topsails and courses blowing in pieces from the masts and yards. Unable to bring the ship to in her present situation, the only chance left us was that of scudding, which became at last very dangerous, as the violence of the wind and increase of the sea had made it difficult to keep the deck. The sea had broken in abaft and made a fair sweep fore and aft, nor were the united efforts of the ship's company capable of preventing it, with all the additional plank and shores they made use of on this occasion. The ship was running at this time (as supposed by the officers and ship's company in general) at the rate of fourteen miles an hour, which will not appear very strange when it is considered that all her sails were loose, and consequently did not a little contribute to her going.

To paint a true description of this horrid gale, and to discover the distressed situation we were in, amidst a dark winter's night, severe frost and snow, and constant watchings for forty-eight hours, is totally beyond the power of words to express. I shall therefore observe only, that the gale having somewhat abated on the evening of the 11th, and the wind shifting round suddenly from north-west to north-east, we brought to under a fore staysail at the mizen mast, and having replaced some of the most necessary parts of the rigging, divided the ship's company into four watches, and sent all those except the watch to sleep.

The following day was employed in unbending the remaining canvas from the yards, and replacing them with a new suit of sails fore and aft, reeving new running rigging, and repairing the stern frame. Here I must observe that from the commencement of this horrid gale we had parted company with the admiral, and never again saw him till we joined in America, when we learned he had suffered extremely, and that having lost all his sails, quarter-galleries and headrails, he had broached to, and nearly gone down.

The weather continued to blow fresh till the 15th, when we had another smart gale, during which we lay to under a balance-mizen; in this gale we lost the bumkins and remaining part of the carlings, rails &c. of the head and a part of the starboard quarter gallery. Nothing was wanting to prove the extreme severity of the season; but yet, notwithstanding, Captain [Charles] Hudson determined to make the northern passage, concluding that the voyage would be greatly protracted by any other step. The 19th we had a severe gale, which on the 21st increased to a violent one indeed. About one o'clock this morning a heavy gust carried away our fore mast fifteen or twenty feet above the forecastle, which fell over the lee fore chains and remained in a disagreeable situation for some time; in clearing which, the main topmast stay was cut, which carried away the main topmast, and wounded nine men. At half-past eight o'clock in the morning the main mast also went by the board, crushed down the booms, and stove the long boat and a large cutter all to pieces, as well as the gallows bitts, gangway rails, and some of the fore part of the quarter deck. Having with difficulty cleared the ship of the wreck, we hoisted a fore topgallant-sail to the stump of the foremast to keep the ship before the sea, which ran amazing high and frequently broke all over us. The situation we were in at this period was distressing beyond all description. The people was so fatigued that they daily fell sick, nor was there the least probability of a few days' good weather to repair our defects, as the heavy falls of snow totally prevented the erecting jurymasts, without which we could make no progress.

Captain Hudson was now resolved to bear up and sail for England, the wind at this time favouring his intention; we accordingly kept her east, which was nearly our course to the Lizard, from which we were distant 460 leagues. Some days had passed ere the least alteration had taken place in the weather, which at last became more moderate. This opportunity was immediately embraced to erect jurymasts, which was completed by the 26th, and equal, if not superior, to any of the kind fitted at sea. The 26th, 27th, and 28th was again blowing weather, during which time we lay to; on the latter of which days the cover of the armchest fell out of the mizen-top, knocked out four of the gunner's teeth, cut his right eye in a most shocking manner, and broke his right shoulder in two places, notwithstanding which he soon recovered, and in two months returned to his duty. must here make a small digression, and observe that in the gale of the 10th we lost a whole suit of sails, and on the 21st another, the sails on the mizen mast excepted; the third and only remaining suit was cut up for jury sails at different times; and thus situated, the captain again determined to gain the coast of America; the course was accordingly changed to the westward, and we went on for some days tolerably well.

But a few days was sufficient to discover that the season was big with raging winds as we advanced towards the American shore, and that we was to experience every great distress that seamen are in general subject to; for on the 2nd of December a heavy gale of wind arose which carried away our jury maintopmast and topsail yard, and split the sail from clew to earing. The weather now never continued fair or moderate, and gale followed gale with more seventy than ever; and I shall here content myself with observing, that from the 4th of December to the 20th, we lost four topmasts, six topsail yards, one mainsail, one foresail, two main topsails and one fore topsail, besides innumerable other accidents too tedious to give a particular detail of; for our masts and yards was no other at this time than studding-sail booms, and all our square sails had been for some time expended, together with most of our staysails and studdingsails. Notwithstanding this our unpleasing situation we were determined to keep Christmas Day, which we celebrated with dishes and chairs lashed to the table amidst a heavy gale of wind. The 28th being the anniversary of my birth, I gave the Royal Africans a dinner, and passed a jovial day, which even a tremendous gale of wind was incapable of preventing, and which day differed nothing from the 25th in point of living or weather.

I shall now come to the beginning of January, 1776, at which time our distresses were multiplied, and we had neither spars, sails, or anything left, except those then at the masts, and we had also the mortification to find our water grow short, having been put to an allowance of a pint a day. Our ship was grown so amazingly light, from the prodigious quantity of stores and provisions expended, that she not only became troublesome but very dangerous, as in some of the late gales she rolled so deep and quick that the guns in the galley drew the ring bolts from the side and broke loose; we were not within four hundred leagues of the coast at this period, nor [had] any more hopes of reaching it than we had a month back, and though the officers were great advocates for bearing up for the West Indies, yet Captain Hudson was determined to persevere, and reach America at all events.

On the 18th of January, from having unexpectedly a few days' moderate and fair weather, we got within twelve leagues of Cape Sambro; but the wind flying round to the westward, and as usual blowing tremendous gales with powerful falls of snow and dreadful severe frost, we were on the 25th, being eighty leagues from the cape, still mo're distressed for masts, yards and sails than ever, and on this day we were put to half a pint of water a man. The severity of the frost was such that we was unable to set our sails until boiling water was thrown on them, and our men now began to fall sick daily from the fatigue and hardships they underwent. Our ideas was so filled just now with misfortunes that it was usual to ask in relieving the deck what accidents had befallen us in the preceding watch; and I may venture to affirm that all hopes of ever seeing land again had vanished for some time from the breast of every individual in the ship. One night while T was sleeping in my cot a heavy squall of wind, accompanied with a horrid sea, lay the ship on her beam ends, at which time seventy-four shot boxes broke adrift from the main mast and crushed down the frame of my berth, passing under my cot with a most hideous noise. I immediately sat up in my bed, and hearing the splitting of sails, the washing of water on the deck, the noise and bustle of the people, all joined to this horrible attack upon my berth, I conceived the long expected awful and final stroke had been given us, and fancied the ship then in the act of sinking, until I was relieved from those dreadful apprehensions by one of my messmates, who was turning up the idlers to assist in taking in the sails, when he informed me the ship had been in great danger, but was then brought to.

Words, in fact, are not sufficiently expressive, and my pen is equally defective in describing this unhappy passage. I shall therefore observe only that on January 31 we arrived at Halifax in Nova Scotia, after a passage of ninety-seven days, ten weeks of which we had been under jurymasts; the second lieutenant, gunner and seventy-three men sick (twenty of which were frost-bit); the only square sail, a spritsail, at the main yard for a main-sail; the ship covered strangely with ice, and such a wreck as hardly before ever [was] seen, having encountered forty-five heavy severe gales of wind. To prove the matter still further, I shall observe that the thanks of the commander-in-chief was gave to the captain and ship's company, and on the Sunday following we returned thanks to Almighty God for our safe arrival in Halifax, and for our happy deliverance from the hardships and perils of the sea.

John Knox Laughton, ed., Journal of Rear-Admiral Bartholomew James 1752-1828 (London, 1896), 16-22. Hereafter cited as Laughton, ed., James' Journal. Many of the dates given by James are incorrect, and the passage, according to the log of the Orpheus, was ninety-three days, not ninety-seven.