the ship, were thrown overboard, that if the water should again appear in the hold, we might have no impediment in baling. All the guns were overboard, the fore-mast secured, and the machine, which was to be similar to that with which the Ipswich was steered, was in great forwardness, so that I was in hopes, the moderate weather continuing, that I should be able to steer the ship by noon the following day, and at least save the people on some of the Western Islands. Had we any other ship in company with us, I should have thought it my duty to have quitted the Centaur this day. This night the people got some rest by relieving the watches; but on the morning of the 21st we had the mortification to find that the weather again threatened, and by noon it blew a storm. The ship laboured greatly, and the water appeared in the fore and after hold, and increased. The carpenter also informed me that the leathers were nearly consumed, and likewise that the chains of the pumps, by constant exertion and the friction of the coals, were considered as nearly useless. 'As we had now no other resource but baling, I gave orders that scuttles should be cut through the deck to introduce more buckets into the hold; and all the sailmakers were employed night and day in making canvas buckets; and the orlop deck having fallen in on the larboard side, I ordered the sheet-cable to be tossed overboard. The wind at this time was at west, and being on the larboard tack, many schemes had been practised to wear the ship, that we might drive into a less boisterous latitude, as well as approach the Western Islands, but none succeeded; and having a weak carpenter's crew, they were hardly sufficient to attend to the pumps, so that we could not make any progress with the steering machine. Another sail had been thrummed and got over, but we did not find its use; indeed, there was no prospect but in a change of weather. A large leak had been discovered and stopped in the fore-hold, and another in the lady's hold; but the ship appeared so weak from her labouring, that it was clear she could not last long. The after cockpit had fallen in, the fore cockpit the same, with all the storerooms down; the stern-post was so loose, that as the ship rolled the water rushed in on either side in great streams, which we could not stop. 'Night came on with the same dreary prospect as on the preceding, and was passed in continual efforts of labour. Morning came without our seeing anything, or any change of weather, and the day was spent with the same struggles to keep the ship above water, pumping and baling at the hatchways and scuttles. Towards night another of the the motion of the ship. The people till this period had laboured as if determined to conquer their difficulties, without a murmur, or without a tear; but now, seeing their efforts useless, many of them burst into tears, and wept like children. Every time that I visited the hatchway I observed the water increased, and at noon washed even the orlop deck. The carpenter assured me the ship could not swim long, and proposed making rafts to float the ship's com chain-pumps was rendered quite useless, by one of the rollers being displaced at the bottom of the pump, and this was without remedy, there being too much water in the well to get to it; we also had but six leathers remaining, so that the fate of the ship was not far off. Still the labour went on without any apparent despair, every officer taking his share of it; and the people were always cheerful and obedient. During the night the weather increased; but about seven in the morning of the 23d, I was in-pany, whom it was not in my formed that an unusual quantity power to encourage any longer of water appeared all at once in with a prospect of their safety. the fore-hold, which, upon my Some appeared perfectly regoing forward to be convinced, signed, went to their hammocks, I found but too true. The stow- and desired their messmates to age of the hold ground tier was lash them in; others were lashall in motion, so that in a shorting themselves to gratings and time there was not a whole cask to be seen. We were convinced the ship had sprung a fresh leak. Another sail had been thrumming all night, and I was giving directions to place it over the bows, when I perceived the ship settling by the head, the lower deck bow ports being even with the water. At this period the carpenter acquainted me the well was staved in, destroyed by the wreck of the hold, and the chain-pumps displaced and totally useless. There was nothing left but to redouble our efforts in baling; but it became difficult to fill the buckets, from the quantity of staves, anchor stocks, planks, and yard-arm pieces which were now washed from the wings, and loating from side to side with small rafts; but the most predominant idea was that of putting on their best and cleanest clothes. 'The weather about noon had been something moderate; and as rafts had been mentioned by the carpenter, I thought it right to make the attempt, though I knew our booms could not float half the ship's company in fine weather; but we were in a situation to catch at a straw. I therefore called the ship's company together, told them my intention, recommending them to remain regular and obedient to their officers. Preparations were immediately made for this purpose; the booms were cleared; the boats, of which we had three, viz. cutter, pinnace, and five oared yawl, were got over the with her in a vortex, to a cer- to follow me, and immediately descended into the boat at the after part of the chains, but not without great difficulty got the boat clear of the ship, twice the number that the boat would carry pushing to get in, and many jumping into the water. Mr. Baylis, a young gentleman about fifteen years of age, leaped from the chains after the boat had got off, and was taken in. The boat falling astern, became exposed to the sea, and we endeavoured to pull her bow round to keep her to the break of the sea, and to pass to windward of the ship; but in the attempt she was nearly filled, the sea ran too high, and the only probability of living was in keeping her before the wind. It was then that I became sensible how little, if any, better our condition was, than that of those who remained in the ship; at the best, it appeared to be only a prolongation of a miserable existence. We were altogether twelve in number, in a leaky boat, with one of the gunwales staved, in nearly the middle of the Western Ocean, without a compass, without quadrant, without sail, without greatcoat or cloak, all very thinly clothed, in a gale of wind, with a great sea running. It was now five o'clock in the evening, and in half an hour we lost sight of the ship. Before it was dark a blanket was discovered in the boat. This was immediately bent to one of the stretchers, and under it as a sail we scudded all night, in expectation of being swallowed up by every wave, it being with great difficulty that we could sometimes clear the boat of the water, before the return of the next great sea; all of us half drowned, and sitting, except those who baled, at the bottom of the boat; and without having really perished, no people ever endured more. In the morning the weather grew moderate, the wind having shifted to the southward, as we discovered by the sun. Having survived the night, we began to recollect ourselves, and to think of our future preservation. 'Upon examining what we had to subsist on, I found a bag of bread, a small ham, a single piece of pork, two quart bottles of water, and a few French cordials. The wind continued to be southward for eight or nine days, and providentially never blew so strong but that we could keep the side of the boat to the sea; but we were always most miserably wet and cold. We kept a sort of reckoning; but the sun and stars being sometimes hidden from us for twenty-four hours, we had no very correct idea of our navigation. We judged at this period that we had made nearly an E.N.E. course since the first night's run, which had carried us to the S. E., and expected to see the island of Corvo. In this, however, we were disappointed, and we feared that the southerly wind had driven us far to the northward. Our prayers were now for a northerly wind. Our condition began to be truly miserable, both from hunger and cold; for on the 5th we had discovered that our bread was nearly all spoiled by salt water, and it was necessary to go on allowance. One biscuit divided into twelve morsels for breakfast, and the same for dinner; the neck of a bottle broken off with the cork in served for a glass, and this filled with water was the allowance of twenty-four hours for each man. This was done without any sort of partiality or distinction; but we must have perished ere this, had we not caught six quarts of rain-water; and this we could not have been blessed with, had we not found in the boat a pair of sheets, which by accident had been put there. These were spread when it rained, and when thoroughly wet wrung into the kid with which we baled the boat. With this short allowance, which was rather tantalizing than sustaining in our comfortless condition, we began to grow very feeble; and our clothes being continually wet, our bodies were in many places chafed with sores. 'On the 13th day it fell calm, and soon after a breeze of wind sprung up from the S.S.W., and blew to a gale, so that we ran before the sea at the rate of five or six miles an hour under our blanket, till we judged we were to the southward of Fayal, and to the westward sixty leagues; but the wind blowing strong, we could not attempt to steer for it. Our wishes were now for the wind to shift to the westward. This was the fifteenth day we had been in the boat, and we had only one day's bread, and one bottle of water remaining of a second supply of rain. Our sufferings were now as great as human strength could bear, but we were convinced that good spirits were a better support than any great bodily strength; for on this day Thomas Matthews, quarter-master, the stoutest man in the boat, perished from hunger and cold; on the day before he complained of want of strength in his throat, as he expressed it, to swallow his morsel, and in the night drank salt water, grew delirious, and died without a groan. As it became next to a certainty that we should all perish in the same manner in a day or two, it was somewhat comfortable to reflect that dying of hunger was not so dreadful as our imagination had represented. Others had complained of these symptoms in their throats; and some, indeed all but myself, had drunk salt water. As yet despair and gloom had been successfully prohibited; and as the evening closed in, the men had begun by turns to sing a song, or relate a story instead of supper; but this evening I found it impossible to raise either. As the night came on it fell calm, and about midnight a breeze of wind sprang up, we guessed from the westward by the swell; but there not being a star to be seen, we were afraid of running out of the way, and waited impatiently for the rising sun to be our compass. 'As soon as the dawn appeared, we found the wind to be exactly as we had wished, at W.S.W., and immediately spread our sail, running before the sea at the rate of four miles an hour. Our last breakfast had been served with the bread and water re |
