Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.Anonymous
History
Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.
Anonymous
Mutiny; Pirates; Seafaring life; Shipwrecks
Captain Israel Pellow, and Captain William Swaffield, of his Majesty's
ship Overyssel, who was at dinner with him and the first lieutenant,
were drinking their wine; when the first explosion threw them off
their seats, and struck them against the carlings of the upper deck,
so as to stun them. Captain Pellow, however, had sufficient presence
of mind to fly to the cabin windows, and seeing the two hawsers, one
slack in the bit and the other taut, threw himself with an amazing
leap, which he afterwards said, nothing but his sense of danger could
have enabled him to take, upon the latter, and by that means saved
himself from the general destruction, though his face had been badly
cut against the carlings, when he was thrown from his seat. The first
lieutenant saved himself in the same manner, by jumping out of the
window, and by being also a remarkable good swimmer; but Captain
Swaffield, being, as it was supposed, more stunned, did not
escape.--His body was found on the twenty-second of October, with his
skull fractured, appearing to have been crushed between the sides of
two vessels.
The centinel at the cabin door happened to be looking at his watch;
how he escaped no one can tell, not even himself. He was, however,
brought on shore, and but little hurt; the first thing he felt was,
that his watch was dashed out of his hands, after which he was no
longer sensible of what happened to him. The boatswain was standing on
the cat-head, the bowsprit had been stepped for three hours; the
gammoning and every thing on; and he was directing the men in rigging
out the jib-boom, when suddenly he felt himself driven upwards and
fell into the sea. He then perceived that he was entangled in the
rigging, and had some trouble to get clear, when being taken up by a
boat belonging to one of the men of war, they found that his arm was
broken. One of the surviving seamen declared to an officer of rank,
that he was preserved in the following truly astonishing manner:--He
was below at the time the Amphion blew up, and went to the bottom of
the ship, he recollected that he had a knife in his pocket, and taking
it out, cut his way through the companion of the gun-room, which was
already shattered with the explosion; then letting himself up to the
surface of the water, he swam unhurt to the shore. He shewed his knife
to the officer, and declared he had been under water full five
minutes.
It was likewise said, that one of the sailors' wives had a young child
in her arms; the fright of the shock made her take such fast hold of
it, that though the upper part of her body alone remained, the child
was found alive locked fast in her arms, and likely to do well.
Mr. Spry, an auctioneer, who had long lived in great respectability at
Dock, with his son and god-son, had gone on board to visit a friend,
and were all lost.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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