starboard bow, overwhelming all, and sweeping caboose, boats, planks,
casks, every thing before it, to the afterpart of the deck; even the
starboard anchor was lifted on to the forecastle; and and the cook, who
was in the galley, washed with all his culinary apparatus into the
lee-scuppers, where he remained some time in a very perilous situation,
jammed in amongst the loose spars and other portions of the wreck, until
extricated by the watch on deck, who, being aft at the moment of the
occurrence, escaped unhurt. Before we could recover from this shock, the
watch below rushed on deck, with the appalling intelligence, that the
water had found its way below, and was pouring in like a torrent We
found that the coppers, forced along the deck with irresistible
violence, had, by striking a stanchen fixed firmly in the deck, split
the covering fore and aft, and let in the water. The captain thought it
time to prepare for the worst. As the ship, from her buoyant cargo,
could not sink, he ordered the crew to store the top with provisions.
And as all exerted themselves with the energy of despair, two barrels of
beef, some hams, pork, butter, cheese, and a large jar of brandy, were
handed in a trice up from below, but not before the water had nearly
filled the cabin, and forced those employed there to cease their
operations, and with the two unfortunate passengers to fly to the deck.
Fortunately for the latter, they knew not the full horror of our
situation. The poor lady, whose name I have forgotten, young and
delicate, already suffering from confinement below and sea sickness,
pale and shivering, but patient and resigned, had but a short time taken
her seat beside her fellow passenger on some planks near the taffrail,
on which lay extended the unfortunate cook, unable to move from his
bruises, when the vessel, a heavy lurch having shifted her cargo, was
laid on her beam-ends, and the water rushing in, carried every thing
off the deck--provisions, stores, planks, all went adrift--and with the
latter, the poor lady, who, with the cook, floated away on them, without