Listen to Mr Ellis search for bread for the other passengers

Thursday Aug 28th



The sea has gone down again but it is a fearful wet morning. We are all beginning to look lean & hungry. We have got now fairly into our sea stores, and the more we see of them, the less we all seem to like them. The provisions of the best quality turn out to be of the commonest kind, they may be the best, but if so, the kind must be something awful. You should see the way we tuck into our porridge. This morning we had no bread, the rolling had prevented the cook from baking & so porridge was a Godsend. This afternoon my poor wife is taken ill again, has had a sort of fainting fit, she is extremely weak what with the poor living on board & baby pulling at her all night, she is very poor & thin. In fact she seems so low in body & spirit she begins to think she will never reach the end of the voyage. We are really having the most atrocious weather, never had more than one or two hours fair (continuous fair) wind since we left port. Gales & calms seem to alternate & the strong winds are always against us. I had to have the Doctor to Lizzie, she was laid almost insensible on the cabin floor. We bandaged her head up for her temples troubled & pained her very much. We have got her to bed now. The wind has got up and the Sailors say we are to have a gale tonight.