Albion, Brigantine, 150 tons :
departed Hull March 11, 1774 –
arrived Halifax May 7 –
at Fort Cumberland May 14 – (17),
crossing to Halifax of 56 days
Nathaniel’s letter of 29 May, 1774 to brother Benjamin :
It is through his kind providence I am writing and our passage is safely landed in Nova Scotia, America, with may difficulties which I Would relate in full had I the time, but firstly shall acquaint you with the struggle and shall let you know that some were afflicted with sea sickness. Secondly the smallpox brought out amongst us which carried off Charles Blankeys wife, and three small children belonging to other people. Thirdly we had three weeks of excessive stormes and dreadful horicanes but were in no danger of suffering except upon Sable Island, which certainly would have been the case if our captain had not been before the ship, in his reckoning two hundred miles, as the Isle is the distance from the Cape called Sable. He begun to sound expecting to see we were nigh the shores and about the dead of night could not find bottom. Again about two they sounded on the Starboard side and found only eleven fathoms. All was in an uproar expecting we were just upon the rocks. Instantly they sounded on the Larboard side and found it thirteen fathoms – by that means they knew it right to steer to the left and, as goodness of God would have it, we escaped the most dangerous place in all the passage from the Lande End of England to the Continent of America.
