“Although it had been deemed prudent to abandon the men’s knapsacks and the officers’ baggage, the reserve battalion of the Ninety-first Regiment went down the side of that shattered wreck, fully armed and accoutred, and, with the exception of their knapsacks, ready for instant service. It would be difficult to praise sufficiently the steady discipline of that young and newly-formed battalion, thus severely tested during nearly seventeen hours of danger; above eight of which were hours of darkness and imminent peril. That discipline failed not, when the apparent hopelessness of our situation might have led to scenes of confusion and crime. The double guards and sentries which had at first been posted over the wine and spirit stores, were found unnecessary, and they were ultimately left to the ordinary protection of single sentries. “Although the ship was straining in every timber, and the heavy seas were making a fair breach over us, the companies of that young battalion fell in on the weather-side of the wreck, as their lots were drawn, and waited for their turn to muster at the lee-gangway; and so perfect was their confidence, their patience, and their gallantry, that although another vessel was going to pieces within a quarter of a mile of us, and a crowd of soldiers, sailors, and convicts were perishing before their eyes, not a murmur arose from their ranks when Captain Gordon directed that the lot should not be applied to the detachments of the Twenty-seventh Regiment and Cape Mounted Riflemen, but that the Ninety-first should yield to them the precedence in disembarking from the wreck. “The officers of the Ninety-first Regiment who disembarked with the battalion were Captains Gordon and Ward, Lieutenant Cahill, Ensigns MʻInroy and Lavers, and Assistant-Surgeon Stubbs. If from among the ranks of men who all behaved so well, it were allowable to particularise any, the names of Acting Sergeant-Major Murphy, Colour-Sergeant Philips, Sergeant Murray, and Corporal Thomas Nugent, deserve this distinction. It was through the first that Captain Gordon communicated his orders, and carried them into execution. Every order he (Sergeant-Major Murphy) received was obeyed, during the confusion of a wreck, with the exactness of a parade-ground. He never left the particular part of the ship where he had been stationed, during the darkness and terror of the night, although a wife and child seemed to claim a portion of his solicitude; and when he received permission to accompany them into the surf-boat, he petitioned to be allowed to remain with Captain Gordon to the last.