A Liberian Journey

Creator

Richard Pearson Strong

Date

11/8/26

Coverage

Sinoe Town, Sinoe County, Liberia

Transcription

November 8th, Monrovia.

We have had what you might call “some adventures” in the interval since November 1st. On the morning of November 2nd, the strong wind that was to take us to Monrovia and had been blowing for several days died out. We had not been able to get a surfboat and crew before. Nevertheless, we started at 6:30 A. M. and rowed out of the mouth of the river and beyond the ledge of rocks into the ocean in a very heavy rain. After an hour and a half the rain stopped, but there was no wind and as the men had become tired of rowing we tossed about like an eggshell on the swells of the ocean, just outside the surf line for several hours. However about eleven o’clock the wind came up, not from astern, however, but on the quarter and we began to make some progress. Fortunately we were all good sailors, but the tossing we got in two days and nights in that whaleboat was marvelous. All the servants were ill and useless. And all of us felt more or less uncomfortable. Loring W. and Harold, who pride themselves, particularly the former, as being excellent sailors, were prevented from taking food at times. Truly a remarkable occurrence for they both love and think of food like most young men I know. It was indeed quite rough and with so small a boat, about 30 feet long and about 7 feet wide in the center, an entirely open boat as I have intimated, we were tossed continually about. Of course we did not do any tacking, for the boat had no keel. On the morning of the 2nd we landed through the surf at Grand Bassa in order to get water for the crew and waited there some two hours for the breeze to come up which had died out in the night about 2 o’clock. During the night the others had lain down on the floor of the boat or on some planks and had gotten some sleep. I however sat up because I felt some responsibility as to how the discipline of the boat was conducted. There was no moon but the clouds were not so heavy so that a few stars were out. There were, however, very numerous rocks along the coast and of course he had no headlight. The lookout would also occasionally doze. However the headman at the tiller proved to be a good captain and apparently knew the coast well. Sometimes we could note the approach to a rock by the flashes of phosphorescence in the distance as the waves broke over the rocks. About four thirty the new moon began to rise and a little later we saw a light that appeared really no larger than a candle, the Grand-bassa lighthouse. We passed quite close to it; if we had not, we would have seen no light. The sea captains complain they can never see the Liberian lighthouses at night. Just before dawn, the clouds to the north lifted and I could see part of the dipper at the horizon, a beautiful sight. A few minutes later, evidences of sunrise appeared and a little after we rowed through the surf to the beach. Nothing happened of note in the village except that we took a bath in the sea and cooked and had breakfast on the edge of the beach beneath a large silk cotton tree. We saw in the town several Dutch and one German and one English man and his wife, the latter agent of the Elder Dempster Steamship Line. As soon as the breeze came up we entered our boat, anchored a few feet from the shore, being carried to it on the shoulders of porters. Again we began our tossing. I lay down at night and slept very well for some hours, though the boards were hard and we had a number of fairly heavy showers. About twelve o’clock midnight, however, the breeze almost died out and then a very light land breeze came up. As it now began to rain very heavily, we sat about until two o'clock when we saw the Monrovia light. We then rowed around in front of the bar and about three o’clock anchored off the surf where we tossed until daylight. Then we rowed in behind the bar and landed at the dock.

Type

Diary

Citation