noon
When the dawn broke something of its midnight fury went out of the gale . The carpenter made shift to sound the well , and to our great satisfaction found but little water , only as much as we had a right to suppose she would take in above . But it was impossible to stand at the pumps , so we returned to the cabin and brewed some cold punch and did what we could to keep our spirits hearty . By noon the wind had weakened yet , but the sea still ran very heavily , and the sky was uncommonly thick with piles of dusky , yellowish , hurrying clouds ; and though we could fairly reckon upon our position , the atmosphere was so nipping it was difficult to persuade ourselves that Cape Horn was not close aboard . We could now work the pumps , and a short spell freed the brig. We got up a new main-topsail and bent it , and , setting the reefed foresail , put the vessel before the wind , and away she ran , chased by the swollen seas . Thus we continued till by dead reckoning we calculated that we were about thirty leagues south of the parallel of the Horn , and in longitude eighty-seven degrees west . We then boarded our larboard tacks and brought the brig as close to the wind as it was proper to lay her for a progress that should not be wholly leeway ; but four hours after we had handled the braces the gale , that had not veered two points since it first came on to blow , stormed up again into its first fury ; and the morning of the 1st of July , _ anno _ 1801 , found the _ Laughing Mary _ passionately labouring in the midst of an enraged Cape Horn sea , her jibboom and fore top-gallant mast gone , her ballast shifted , so that her posture even in a calm would have exhibited her with her starboard channels under , and her decks swept by enormous surges , which , fetching her larboard bilge dreadful blows , thundered in mighty green masses over her .