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
It was now ten o'clock, and as the water gained fast upon them, the
crew had but little hope left of saving either the ship or their
lives. At this critical period Lieutenant Campbell quitted the ship,
and Lieutenant North was taken into the boat out of one of the ports.
From the moment at which the former left the vessel all hopes of
safety had vanished; the ship was sinking fast, the storm was
increasing with redoubled violence, and the rocky shore which they
were approaching, resounded with the tremendous noise of the rolling
billows, presented nothing to those who might survive the loss of the
ship but the expectation of a more painful death, by being dashed
against precipices, which, even in the calmest day, it is impossible
to ascend. Dunlap, one of the survivors, declared, that about half
past ten, as nearly as he could conjecture, one of the men who had
been below, came to him on the forecastle, and told him it was all
over. A few minutes afterwards the ship took a lurch, like a boat
nearly filled with water and going down; on which Dunlap immediately
began to ascend the fore-shrouds, and at the same moment casting his
eyes towards the quarter-deck, he saw Captain Barker standing by the
gangway, and looking into the water, and directly afterwards he heard
him call for the jolly-boat. He then saw the lieutenant of marines
running towards the taffrel, to look, as he supposed, for the
jolly-boat, which had been previously let down with men in her; but
the ship instantly took a second lurch and sunk to the bottom, after
which neither the captain nor any of the other officers were again
seen.
The scene, before sufficiently distressing, now became peculiarly
awful. More than 240 men, besides several women and children, were
floating on the waves, making the last effort to preserve life.
Dunlap, who has been already mentioned, gained the fore-top. Mr.
Galvin, the master's mate, with incredible difficulty, got into the
main-top. He was below when the ship sunk, directing the men at the
chain-pump, but was washed up the hatchway, thrown into the waist and
from thence into the water, and his feet, as he plunged, struck
against a rock. On ascending he swam to gain the main-shrouds, when
three men suddenly seized hold of him. He now gave himself up for
lost; but to disengage himself from them he made a dive into the
water, which caused them to quit their grasp. On rising again he swam
to the shrouds, and having reached the main-top, seated himself on an
arm chest which was lashed to the mast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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