After many conjectures respecting the cause, when we were near
another ship almost as dull as ours, which, however, gain'd upon us,
the captain ordered all hands to come aft, and stand as near the ensign
staff as possible. We were, passengers included, about forty persons.
While we stood there, the ship mended her pace, and soon left her
neighbour far behind, which prov'd clearly what our captain suspected,
that she was loaded too much by the head. The casks of water,
it seems, had been all plac'd forward; these he therefore order'd
to be mov'd further aft, on which the ship recover'd her character,
and proved the sailer in the fleet.
The captain said she had once gone at the rate of thirteen knots,
which is accounted thirteen miles per hour. We had on board,
as a passenger, Captain Kennedy, of the Navy, who contended that it
was impossible, and that no ship ever sailed so fast, and that
there must have been some error in the division of the log-line,
or some mistake in heaving the log. A wager ensu'd between the
two captains, to be decided when there should be sufficient wind.
Kennedy thereupon examin'd rigorously the log-line, and,
being satisfi'd with that, he determin'd to throw the log himself.
Accordingly some days after, when the wind blew very fair and fresh,
and the captain of the paquet, Lutwidge, said he believ'd she then
went at the rate of thirteen knots, Kennedy made the experiment,
and own'd his wager lost.
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