“Captain Gordon made such arrangements as he could, in warning the officers, the sergeant-major, and orderly noncommissioned officers to be in readiness. “From sunset on the 27th the gale had continued to increase, until at length it blew a tremendous hurricane; and at a little after three A.M., on the morning of the 28th, the starboard cable snapped in two; the other cable parted in two or three minutes afterwards, and away went the ship before the storm, her hull striking, with heavy crashes, against the ground as she drove towards the beach, three miles distant, under her lee. “About this time the fury of the gale, which had never lessened, was rendered more terrible by one of the most awful storms of thunder and lightning that had ever been witnessed in Table Bay. While the force of the wind and sea was driving the ship into shoaler water, she rolled incessantly; and heaved over so much with the back-set of the surf, that to the possibility of her going to pieces before daylight, was added the probability of settling down to windward, when the decks must have inevitably filled, and every one of the seven hundred souls on board must have perished. “While in this position the heavy seas broke over her side and poured down the hatchways. The decks were opening in every direction, and the strong framework of the hull seemed compressed together, starting the beams from their places. The ship had been driven with her starboard-bow towards the beach, exposing her stern to the sea, which rushed through the stern ports and tore up the cabin floors of the orlop-deck. “The thunder and lightning ceased towards morning, and the ship seemed to have worked a bed for herself in the sand, for the terrible rolling had greatly diminished, and there then arose the hope that all on board would get safe ashore. “At daybreak (about seven o’clock), it was just possible to distinguish some people on the beach opposite to the wreck. Owing to the fear of the masts, spars, and rigging falling, as well as to keep as much top-weight as possible off the ship’s decks, the troops had been kept below, but were now allowed to come on deck in small numbers. “An attempt was made to send a rope ashore; and one of the best swimmers, a Krooman, volunteered the trial with a rope round his body; but the back-set of the surf was too much for him. A line tied to a spar never got beyond the ship’s bows, and one fired from a cannon also failed. One of the cutters was then carefully lowered on the lee-side of the ship, and her crew succeeded in reaching the shore with a hauling line. Two large surf-boats were shortly afterwards conveyed in waggons to the place where the ship was stranded, and the following orders were given by Captain Gordon for the disembarkation of the troops, viz.:—