John Quincy Adams Digital Diary

16. It was near Midnight when I went to bed; and within an hour afterwards, I was roused, by hearing the Captain speak to a fishing vessel lying at anchor in 38 fathoms Water on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland— We rose immediately and I closed two of my letters for my brother and my mother, which I sealed to have them all ready should the opportunity to put them on board another vessel occur. There was a very thick fog, and soon after we pass’d by the fisherman, it fell to a dead calm— From 2 in the morning untill about 9. we were laying to, and fishing for Cod, upwards of sixty of which we caught— I lost the bite of a halibut; and the hook itself, part of which he carried away— About 10 this morning a light westerly breeze arose; and we got again almost before the wind— A thick fog arose, and no observation of the Sun could be obtained.— Latitude, by the dead reckoning 44:41. Longitude 51:30— Water while we were fishing in the morning 66. Air 68— Water at Noon 68. Air 76.— In the afternoon the fog cleared away, and we saw two fishing vessels laying at Anchor— We bore down and spoke to one of them, which was the Dove, of Plymouth— The Captain sent his first mate, Mr: Poland, on 5on board her, with our letters for America— I sent one to my mother, one to my brother, and one to Mr: Casaux at Portsmouth, New-Hampshire— It will be some time before they can be received, for the vessel expects to lay here on the Banks, six weeks longer— She has been out from Plymouth fifteen days— Six of them here, and has caught already five thousand fish— She has seven men— Their usual fare is about 30,000, and a thousand is a good day’s haul— They sometimes take as many as fifteen hundred in a day— We pass’d so nearly by this vessel, that we almost ran foul of her.— In the Evening we had several light showers of rain.