About eleven o'clock
Me ye prized for a handsome person and a smooth tongue , while you foolishly rejected men of ten times my worth , because they wanted the outward blandishments . '' We were ordered to Bermuda , and on our first quitting the port steered away to the southward with a fair wind at north-west . This breeze soon freshened into a gale at south-east , and blew with some violence , but after a while it died away to a perfect calm , leaving a heavy swell , in which the ship rolled incessantly . About eleven o'clock the sky began to blacken ; and , before noon , had assumed an appearance of the most dismal and foreboding darkness ; the sea-gulls screamed as they flew distractedly by , warning us to prepare for the approaching hurricane , whose symptoms could hardly be mistaken . The warning was not lost upon us , most of our sails were taken in , and we had , as we thought , so well secured everything , as to bid defiance to the storm . About noon it came with a sudden and terrific violence that astonished the oldest and most experienced seaman among us : the noise it made was horrible , and its ravages inconceivable . The wind was from the north-west -- the water as it blew on board , and all over us , was warm as milk ; the murkiness and close smell of the air was in a short time dispelled ; but such was the violence of the wind , that , on the moment of its striking the ship , she lay over on her side with her lee guns under water .