The masts of the vessel fell with a tremendous
crash, but the carpenter still clung to the wreck. At length a
surf-boat, towed by a smaller one, proceeded towards the wreck. One of
these boats was capsized, and two lives lost. But the carpenter was
rescued. This man, (James Robertson,) and John McLeod, seaman, were all
of the crew that reached the shore. The inhabitants of Cape Town were
all anxiety in regard to the fate of the vessel; and those daring heroes
who sacrificed themselves for the sake of their fellow men were worthy
of a monument as lofty as those erected to the bravest warriors.
The place where the Francis Spaight went ashore had been, a short time
previous, the scene of a far more terrible disaster. This was the wreck
of the ship Waterloo, by which two hundred persons were lost, in spite
of the most extraordinary and heroic exertions on the part of the
inhabitants of Cape Town.
The bay is very much exposed to storms, and its shores are particulary
dangerous, on account of their shelving character. The Francis Spaight
had just put into the bay for the purpose of obtaining a supply of
provisions, and it was intended that she should sail the next day.
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