The captain thought it
time to prepare for the worst. As the ship, from her buoyant cargo,
could not sink, he ordered the crew to store the top with provisions.
And as all exerted themselves with the energy of despair, two barrels of
beef, some hams, pork, butter, cheese, and a large jar of brandy, were
handed in a trice up from below, but not before the water had nearly
filled the cabin, and forced those employed there to cease their
operations, and with the two unfortunate passengers to fly to the deck.
Fortunately for the latter, they knew not the full horror of our
situation. The poor lady, whose name I have forgotten, young and
delicate, already suffering from confinement below and sea sickness,
pale and shivering, but patient and resigned, had but a short time taken
her seat beside her fellow passenger on some planks near the taffrail,
on which lay extended the unfortunate cook, unable to move from his
bruises, when the vessel, a heavy lurch having shifted her cargo, was
laid on her beam-ends, and the water rushing in, carried every thing
off the deck--provisions, stores, planks, all went adrift--and with the
latter, the poor lady, who, with the cook, floated away on them, without
the possibility of our saving either of them.
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