“The panic was great as may easily be conceived, and a general cry of ‘Cut away the masts’ was heard from every part of the ship. The captain having been carried into the cabin severely hurt from a fall, just before the ship struck, the command had devolved upon me. I prevented the masts from being cut away, not from any prospect of saving the ship, but in the hope of being able to run her into a sandy bay, near Cabritta point. The first order I gave was to sound the well; when, to my great surprise, it was reported that there was no water in it. I therefore ordered the ship to be kept away, under her tattered sail, so as to give her fresh way, and hauling up, gradually succeeded in getting her into the Gut, and free from any danger of the land; when we proceeded to clear the wreck, to shift the sails, and to bend a cable to the spare anchor. It happened providentially that there were on board two anchors belonging to the Censeur, a French seventy-four, a prize which had been burnt by accident in Fiorenzo bay, and which were to have been landed at Lisbon, when the fleet should have arrived there. These anchors were immediately got up from the main hatchway, where they had been stowed; and after being stocked, had cables bent to them. “The gale continued during the remainder of the night, and through the following morning. In the afternoon it became quite moderate, and the Zealous, commanded by Captain Hood, was seen standing out of Tangier bay, and approaching the Gibraltar. A boat came on board, bringing information to Captain Pakenham that Captain Hood had slipped the cable, by which the Zealous was riding in Tangier bay, and had left a buoy on the cable, with a boat fast to it, in order that the Gibraltar might run in and take advantage of it, in the natural expectation that she must have lost her anchors in driving out of the bay. “This was a most judicious measure, and quite characteristic of the excellent officer who suggested it. The Gibraltar availed herself of it; and having got to snug anchorage in smooth water, was soon able to get the anchors which had been stocked, over the bows; which it would not only have been difficult, but dangerous to do while exposed to a heavy sea.” The perilous situation of the Gibraltar, in this awful night, has furnished an interesting subject for Captain Brenton’s pencil; when in a leisure hour, many years afterwards, he made a drawing from recollection of the ship during the most critical moment, and it may perhaps assist the reader to form a notion of the extreme peril to which the ship was exposed, when the circumstances are named, which, under providence, seem to have been the means of her preservation.