“We found the men rather excited over their discovery. The wine must have been very new and very strong, for the smell from it as it slopped about all over the deck was almost enough to intoxicate anybody. One pipe had already been emptied into the breakers and barrels, and great efforts were made to get some of the casks out whole; but this was found to be impossible, without devoting more time to the operation than we chose to spare. The men managed to remove three half empty casks with their heads stove in, which they threw overboard, but the full ones would have required special appliances to raise them through the hatches. It proved exceedingly difficult to get at the wine, which was stowed underneath the cork, and there was also a quantity of cabin bulkheads and fittings floating about under the influence of the long swell of the Atlantic. It was a curious sight, standing on the roof of the deck‐house, to look into the hold, full of floating bales of cork, barrels, and pieces of wood, and to watch the sea surging up in every direction through and over the deck, which was level with the water’s edge. I saw an excellent modern iron cooking‐stove washing about from side to side; but almost every other movable article, including spars and ropes, had apparently been removed by previous boarders.” It would have delayed them too long to tow her into port, or they might have recovered some £1,500 as salvage, while to blow her up would have required more powder than they had on board. So she was left helplessly drifting about, a danger to any vessel running into her full steam or sail almost as great as a sunken rock.