A Steam Voyage down the Danube, Volume 1 by Michael J. Quin

♦ STEAM-BOAT AGROUND ♦

We took our departure from Mohacs soon after three o'clock in the afternoon, having in the mean while dined on vermicelli soup, bouilli served up with beetroot, roast fowl presented on a couch of stewed cabbage, beef steaks, boiled rice sweetened and browned before the fire, together with roast capon, accompanied as usual by plum sauce. I was glad to see Count P -- -- once more in his place at the table. From the appearance of some fishing-boats which I saw for the first time on the Danube, about two hours after we left Mohacs, I flattered myself with the hope that we began to enter the deepest part of the river, which as it was now full a mile in width, was well entitled to be described as an inland sea. The banks indeed were still low and sandy, which detracted from its beauty. In the distance on the right, a sugar-loafed mountain, rising above the summit of a range of hills, indicated an approaching change of scenery; while we perceived the commencement of a forest on our left, lower down the river: but in other respects the country around us was altogether uninteresting. While I was indulging in a day-dream upon the novelties I was about to encounter, a sudden shock, of no great violence, however, warned us all that we were absolutely aground. The captain treated the accident with entire indifference, and it was not until he found that we were literally imbedded in the sand that he even thought of despatching a man in the small boat to sound the river on either side. We had the mortification to observe that in every part of the river at the distance of a few feet from the steamer, there was an over-abundance of water, and that had we industriously sought for a sandbank on which to run the vessel, by no effort of skill could we have found it any where except on the very spot where we were now detained. Instead of making any immediate exertions to extricate the boat from this disagreeable situation, our captain walked up and down the deck for a while, looking vacantly around him, scarcely knowing what to do. An anchor was at length borne out to a distance and thrown into the river, with a slight rope attached to it, which was carried round the axle of the windlass. The men were then set to work with a view, by pulling at the anchor, to shift the boat from its unfortunate position; but the rope was no sooner strained than it broke; it was tied and broke again and again, until every body saw that the cord was much too slender for the purpose. It was at length suggested that the only course which remained was to lighten the vessel of its cargo, when it would probably float of itself; but as this was an operation that would occupy some hours, and the day had now nearly reached its close, we were obliged to content ourselves with remaining motionless for the night.