Travel of Georg Forster
Wet Jacket Arm - New Zealand
Title
The sounds of the storm at Wet Jacket Arm
Short description
Georg Forster describes the dire conditions in which he, his father, and a crew officer find themselves at Wet Jacket Arm suddenly hit by a storm during the night. The sounds of the storm were frightening.
Text on source
But about two o'clock we were roused by a loud thunder-clap. The storm was now at its height, and blew a perfect hurricane. The roar of the waves at a distance was tremendous, and only overcome at times by the agitation of the forests, and the crashing fall of huge timber-trees around us. We went to look after our boat and at that instant a dreadful flash illuminated the whole arm of the sea; we saw the billows foaming, and furiously rolled above each other in livid mountains; in a word it seemed as if all nature was hastening to a general catastrophe. The lightning was instantaneously followed by the most astonishing explosion we had ever heard, reverberated from the broken rocks around us; and our hearts funk with apprehension left the ship might be destroyed by the tempest or its concomitant ætherial fires, and ourselves left to perish in an unfrequented part of the world. In this dismal situation we lingered out the night, which seemed the longest we had ever know.
English translation
Folios/Pages
pp. 184-185
Date
1773 05 07
Observations on the events description
The dots on the map indicate the places where sound and music events were described. They don't represent travel stages.
Participants
Name
Role
Notes
Edit
Delete
Forster, Johann Reinold
Travel fellow
How to quote
Fabbrocino A. P., "The sounds of the storm at Wet Jacket Arm" (Event description), Echos. Sound Ecosystems in Travelogues. Published 2024 03 13.
doi: 10.25430/echos.travels.76
This work is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0 
