[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 13th The wind changed to the west again during the last night. It is an exceding cold day like the bank weather of the coast of North America. We have a light head wind but a vary heavy swell As though there had been A Heavy blow or immediately would be And According to the Barometer. Yesterday A cold snow storm set in at 10 oclok. The snow and wind continued untill 4 oclok which coverd the ship with snow sleet & frost. It then increased to a gale And the Air so full of snow we could not see scarcely any distance. The whole rigon began to be coverd with ice & it was so cold the wheel & watch had to be releaved vary often to keep them from freezing. It is a cold North Wester. The gale in the evening arose to A Hurricane And dreadful Cold. I never saw so gloomy A time for Sailers.
All canvass was taken in except one or two small stay sails to steady the ship. They then lit her d[...]. I never saw so gloomy a time at sea on board of A ship in the midst of A Hurricane, the raging billows pouring out there fury upon us, evry thing stifning up with cold & frost no one knowing whats [next?]. The yards would be blown away or a mast go by the board or the ship spring a leak or founder & go to the bottom.
It was Amid these reflections late in the evening that I stood on deck & gazed late in the evening upon the wild & dismal appearanc that surrounded me And raisd A secret pray to my Heavenly father to protect us. Then with calmness & composure retired to my bunk leaving all in the hands of God.
No person can form any idea of the Awfully grandure & dismal appearance of such a seene without the sight. It is in the midst of such seenes that I wonder And marvel that men enough can be found in the world to carry on the commerce of the Nations of the earth by sea that can be hired to follow such a trade pass through such exposures & suffer such privations for the paltry sum of $10 or $15 per month. We however through the goodness of God And the strength of a s[trong?] oak ship passed through the seene without damage. The wind died away during the night & the gale ceased & we were all preserved.
[Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]
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