Saturday, January 30th, 1869

About six hund. miles from the Land’s End, a day that will ever be remembered by us, I certainly thought our time was come. It thought our trials at the Chinchas were great, but there we were surrounded by ships so that we had a chance of being picked up had the ship struck on the rocks. But here it was impossible to save our lives as no boat could hold together in such terrific seas rolling over her in every direction. It was truly frightful. Every sea that struck her I though from the force of the shock it would do some dreadful damage to her and so cause her to leak. Two of our beautiful boats were stove and one of them iron one so you can give some idea of it. The pantry window was smashed into fragments not larger than a little finger nail, and before the carpenter could get a board to nail over it the seas came rolling in one over the other, putting out the fire in forward cabin. I rushed out of the room almost frantic into the cabin where I stood fixed as it were to the spot, for indeed I could not move for some time, the seas came rolling in over my feet. I cannot possibly describe my feelings at the time. Yet I felt I must rouse myself for the sake of my poor husband who was completely exhausted with fatigue and anxiety. About 5 p.m. sundown it moderated a little, still we were truly thankful for the smallest hopes, and George got an hour’s sleep on the sofa, which was a great comfort to him and also to myself. I laid down then myself, but to sleep was impossible although we had neither of us been in bed for a week. The glass was so low Capt. knew there was a storm brewing but did not anticipate anything so bad. If I dozed off for a minute I fancied the whole side of the ship was being stove in, ship continuing to roll terribly and the constant seas washing over her. But an all-wise Providence watched over us and brought us through it in safely once more, for which we both offered up our humble thanks with all our hearts.