The Stabler Family

of the most respectable class _

About half past four, we weighed anchor, and pass'd the narrows a little before sunset _ At 9 oclock our Pilot was dicharged, (by whom I sent letters homeward) and we stood out to sea in a South Easterly direction.

1st day morning 6 mo 17th

After a poor nights rest from the motion of the ship, I got up about Sunrise & went up on Deck and what was to be seen? nothing but Sky and water _ one "wide unbounded prospect lies before us." Land has disappeared perhaps forever from our view! Home – with all its endearing charms has receded from our sight – And for aught I know (at the present moment), ere the [period] roles round when our barque may reach its haven. Some of us who are now with buoyant Spirits riding triumphantly over the countless billows of the Atlantic may exchange the safety of one Barque for

rolling over like barrels in the water, sometimes jumping entirely out of the element one after the other like so many sheep gambolling over a gutter and they will have a tolerable idea of ——— what? why of my scanty meagre powers of description. So much for the "Sketch book" to please my cousin [Bert] — which thou will find not like thy favorite Washington's but a book of only sketches — the fragments of thought — strung together helter skelter — sometimes perhaps a Sermon and [anon] a song for instance Captⁿ Crocker has just said he has Sailed 288 miles in 24 hours in this vessel which is more than he ever did in any other and the day we dined together at [M^t/r] Hicks he said he had X^d the Atlantic 138 times and never was wrecked or met with any serious accident. This

much for one sketch - now for another - Our Passengers have begun to be sea sick - One runs here to relieve himself - another there - the women are heaving - and the men trying to do so - I am clear yet - an almost universal disposition to get out of sight to puke - and a genteel disposition it is, too _ _ I have kept moving about on deck - and mostly near parts of the Ship where there is the least motion - another "sketch" - Three sail in sight and it is now about 12 o clock. I have just eaten my luncheon - and find it sets like Georges Pudding pretty "heavy" upon my Stomach _

No sooner said than done - its all gone to the fishes - and may it do them as much good as it has me to get clear of it and then it may not be said that our headWind has blown nobody good

Evening - four fifths of the passengers sick particularly those who appeared to eat heartily, some few old travellers keep up but some deadly sick, which I have not been yet _ heard of one boy who was lying on the deck and as the Captain passed him gave a slight kick _ saying "Come Sir get up". _ oh for pity's sake captain throw me ovrboard if you please, but dont kick me." _ Of this feeling I know nothing yet.

Spoke an English brig this evening bound for the West ward - pass'd within a few [rod] of her but very swiftly and "no time for chat" as my facetious brother says of the Man in a hurry - Ask'd him to report us _

2nd day Morning The first dash is to take a [seidlith?] powder when I got dressed, and the next to throw it over board for the benefit of

the __ stomach. A fine wind this morning, which takes us about forty six hours right out to sea in SE direction _ All the passengers but three or four pretty tolerable Qualmish _ Several had to clear out from the table at breakfast _ I among the rest to lose my second meal and it of good old Mush and New Milk - Dinner hour four to five o clock but declined taking much but some Corn'd beef and bread and after a while topped off with Strawberries and pineapple _ This Sea breeze is a wonderful Strengthener _ I have not eaten much but feel stronger by a good percent than when ^{1 came} on board _ My pulse 50 to 55 calm & quiet & to my Marvel all my old fears about the dangers of the Gulph below us and its various and rapacious inhabitants have so far left me that on this account I am a stranger to the feeling. Poor Rachel [Law ^d]

brood bid defiance to the toils of the Angler.

4th day 20th. A warm morning this _ wind still SSE. _ a sail in sight _ - almost all my qualms have taken their departure _ The Sail in Sight proves to be the "Bayard" one of the Havre packets - It also sailed with the Acasta on the 13th _ as it put about passed our stern half a mile off, but with good glasses we saw the deck crowded with its passengers _ not near eno to speak then

At 12 o clock find our Latitude 36° 35 _ Somewhere if I recollect the L of Richmond, Va _ the Sea water warm as well as the air _ The Bayard in sight at 12 o clock _ but now lost to our [Wn] _ A Calm has overtaken us - perhaps a prelude to its opposite _

The Shearers _ shear the waves or swell more properly and the gulls strech their wings to gull the poor finny

6th day 6 mo 22nd A fine breeze this morning blowing right aft, which tho' it makes the Ship roll from side to side wafts us at 7 or 8 miles the hour. Another Sail in Sight bearing SW. The brig seen last ev^g rather nearer this mor^g. Saw several Portuguese men of war in comp^y with each other _ _ a whale seen this afternoon _ a smooth sea and less rolling. _ Heard from the good old Cap^t Crocker. Some rare storeys about Anna Braithwaite &c and from W^m Landgon who came over with her at the time Bishop Hobart did {shorthand} {shorthand} Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from my friend the "Ready Writer" which I must Answer with the books he gave me he * inclosed a portrait of the Old Patriarch Elias. At 12 oclock took the Latitude. Saw a plank floating on the waves with fish round it and covered with clams _ presently a Dolphin jump^d over it - Small flying fish to be seen occasionally. [Men?] hoisting the main topsail this morning. a *{shorthand}

a good library of 150 volumes we cannot read -- the chefs boards all lie idle -- and the cars are trumped -- walking is tiresome lying still more so -- and talking is a thing of nought -- the only resource is to sleep it off - as to writing, it is too [much?} for any body to undertake [?] to avoid the pilory or whipping post which is about equivilent to being lashed up to the yard arms. 2nd day 25th Lat by observ. this day 41° 7' A dead calm nearly all the morning -- 2 large whates spouting (see by the captain) about a mile from us -- a little breeze about two o clock - a school of black fish - somewhat similar to the whale or grampus - a large fin on the the back and from 10 to 20ft from snout to tail -- some of them very near the ship. For the want [drawing of fish] of something better to do --- as the calm was so complete that the [?] actually went backwards

derive their name — but it would not take — Lat to day 41° 51 — A slight breeze at night and we begin to for from 3 to 4 miles pH^r [but bring] abt makes her roll _

5th day 28th

Quite a bresse this morning & which gives us pitching for rolling which is far preferable _ I have just discoverd that my birth is in about the worse place in the whole ship * discoved it by walking on the deck _ and when I got over my sky light _ when the Ship is pitching it seems as if it shrank from underneath the feet. — rainy_wet_damp weather to day — the sea runs high (fine mild weather) and we run faster than 9 of 10 knots to the N — several of us Sea sick again – I feel a little conscientiously scrupulous about the matter but not eno to part with what I have taken to fill the blanks between bone & skin _ A ship in sight to day.

Lat 43, 51

* & so dark that I can seldom write well

somewhat like the more brilliant Indigo — The swell appears smooth a wave sometimes from one to two hundred yards over and ten or fifteen feet in height. — had a fine view of a whale spouting this evening about half a mile dist^t — a considerable noise like a plunge in the water first attracted our attention and the water seem'd to rise like a "jett de Eau" for five or 6ft. — Porpoises again – Mother Careys brood for some days past seem'd to have left us — Sailing 3 or 4 knots an hour. Course ESE _ a barque in sight this afteroon which have left far behind us _ _ Music ''Auld lang syne" quick step [drawing of pointing hand] Cognomine Magnificus — dancing on deck right over my head which with various other contrivances, jumping pitching [?] serve to pass a listless hour away. _ They generally retire from 12 to 1/2 past 12 when it is pretty still till 3 & 1/2 past 3. _ when cry "pump ship"