Western Literary Magazine.

THE TYPHOON,

OR A FORECASTLE YARN.

Original.

BY AN OLD SALT.

(See Engraving.)

ON a bright and beautiful morning in April, 1841, after a long passage from New York, diversified by those storms, calms, and trade-winds, peculiar to the different latitudes through which we passed, the good ship Americanus, with sails all set, rode majestically, before a stiff breeze, up the harbor of Hong Kong - which is formed by an island some nine miles in extent, on one side, belonging now to the English, and the main land of the Chinese empire on the other, and is the first stopping-place for vessels bound for Canton. As we passed up the harbor, I was quite interested in the rude and broken scenery on either hand; as it was a complete range of abrupt highlands, rising, in some places, to the hight of two thousand feet, so that, when we were once fairly within the harbor, it seemed like a lake sunk down in the very heart or center of a mountain. After gliding by, in our course, a variety of boats and shipping, we cast anchor opposite a small English fort, where floated the cross of St. George, and, surrounded as we were, with the high rocky barriers of nature, one would have supposed that the hurricane of these climates could never disturb essentially the quiet surface of this harbor, however much it might rage outside, or upon the mountains. But appearances are deceitful, as the sequel will show. Our sails were furled, chains run out, second "bower" anchor dropped, the

vessel steadily moored, and preparations made for discharging the cargo next day. The sun set gloriously that night, and his parting rays were reflected back brilliantly by the smooth and mirrored surface of the waters. After we had taken our supper, listened to the bands of some English men-of-war, which lay near, or spent the time in hearing or telling sailor yarns, we all turned in, but the watch, about ten o'clock, anticipating a night of rest and pleasant dreams. Hardly had we slept an hour, however, before we were all suddenly aroused from our slumbers by a tremendous crash, as though the vessel had struck a rock, which made every timber in the Americanus creak again. The next instant, above the loud din of the roaring, which was all a mystery to me, as I knew we lay secure at anchor when we turned in, I heard the stentorian voice of the first mate, followed immediately by that of the captain, crying-"All hands ahoy!"

Without paying much attention to the duties of the toilet, every sailor rushed at the startling summons on deck. And what a scene! Language is beggarly to describe it. The water of the harbor, which was so calm the evening before, was now all foam and boiling like an angry cauldron. The wind blew as I never saw the wind blow before. It raged a perfect hurricane, and seemed to rush down the sides of the surrounding mountains and press upon the water with the force of a giant.

This, it must be recollected, was about the time of the war between the English and Chinese, and the harbor of Hong Kong was literally crowded with British men-of-war, troop ships, cutters, and steamers. The troop ships were large vessels of about a thousand tons burden, and laden with soldiers and provisions; some having more than five hundred soldiers aboard.

Now for the cause of the tremendous crash that had startled all of us from our slumbers. Just as I emerged from the steerage, and had gained the deck, the first object that met my astonished sight, was one of those troop ships-those monstrous leviathans of the deep-elevated some twenty or thirty feet above the stern of our craft, for she was twice the size of the Americanus; having been brought into that position with relation to us, by dragging her anchor faster than we did before the gale, for not a vessel in the harbor held

her ground but the men-of-war. Another reason why the huge vessel was elevated so far above us was the fact, that she was riding the crest of the wave, while we were wallowing in the trough of the sea. Presently, however, we rose upon the crest, while she sunk into the trough, which brought her huge bows down upon our stern with another tremendous crash, similar to that which so startled us all from our slumbers, sinking our stern deep in the water, and making our vessel tremble and creak in every joint. Thus we alternated with the huge troop ship for some time, when, by a sudden increased violence of the gale, the two ships were brought together with such a terrible concussion, that the troop ship lost her main and foretop masts and bowsprit, while our mizzenmast went over the side with a crash, and our stern frame-work was so knocked in by the blow, that the after part of the vessel was a complete wreck.

"Cut away the rigging and let the mast go clear!" shouted the captain, through his speaking-trumpet. Instantly were his orders obeyed by the ready sailors, and soon the splintered mast was floating clear from the vessel.

Seeing the crippled and wrecked condition of the stern of our ship, and thinking we must be in a sinking condition, the sympathizing soldiers on board of the troop ship screamed out-"Jump on board of us! Ho! jump on board of us!" Just as if, in the first place, that impossible feat could have been performed; and as if, in the second place, we should be any safer, if we could gain their decks, since all seemed, in that dread hour, to be rushing, with hurricane speed, to the same inevitable ruin, and none could divine who would reach it first.

Just at that moment the attention of all on board of both vessels was attracted by a wild and terrific scream of mortal agony, which rose above the roaring of wind and wave from the entire crew of the troop ship, Royal George, which had dragged her anchors the whole length of the bay, and was going to pieces upon the jagged rocks of a promontory at its lower extremity, where the waters dashed and foamed with the rage of a Scylla and Charybdis. Short, however, was the fearful death wail that came upon the wings of the roaring

gale! Soon not a vestige of that huge leviathan remained in the

.

place where she struck, and the wild and heart-rending screams of her inmates were all hushed in death.

But to return to our own perilous situation. We were now, as it were," between two fires." The blow that crushed in the frame-work of the stern, sent us reeling forward, until our bows were elevatedbeing on the crest of the wave at the time-right above the stern of another troop ship, and when the mountain billows, upon which we rode, subsided, down we came upon the troop ship with such force, that our bowsprit was laid clear over on board, and lay along our deck, like a spare spar, while our cutwater was taken completely off, and a small part of the bow; so that the vessel took in water every time she made a lunge.

His maintop

Our neighbor fared no better, but rather worse. mast and mizzenmast went by the board, his stern was stove in, and all of one of the quarter galleries torn off, giving us a fair view of the interior arrangements of the vessel, and a free admission to every wave that dashed against the stern.

us.

This proved to be both a lucky and an unlucky circumstance for Unlucky, because we were so injured by the fearful collision; and lucky, because the blow gave us a slight turn from the two troop ships, and enabled us to drift clear from them; which we regarded as far more pleasant than, while we were going, as we supposed, to certain destruction, to be battered to pieces by inches all along the road to it.

We were clear, it is true, from the vessels, but before the same unabated and terrific hurricane; on! on! we dragged our anchors, every moment nearing the dreaded rocks. Each man expected to die, and all waited, in breathless suspense, the awful moment when he should be summoned away from earth.

When within a short distance of the jagged points of the jutting and rocky promontory, where we could plainly see those points upon which we expeeted soon to be impaled in the last struggle, and where we could hear the almost deafening din of the breakers, we were all startled from our suspense by the voice of the captain, high above the roar of the wind and wave, ordering the axe men to stand by to cut away the two remaining masts, so that the gale should have less