Those on board baled and pumped
without intermission; the cadets and passengers struggling with the
rest. A midshipman was appointed to guard the spirit room. Some of the
more disorderly sailors pressed upon him. "Give us some grog," they
cried, "it will be all one an hour hence." "I know we must die," replied
he, coolly, "but let us die like men;" and armed with a brace of
pistols, he kept his post even while the ship was sinking.
At length the carpenter came up from below, and told those who worked at
the pumps that he could do no more. Some gave themselves up to despair,
others prayed; and some resolved not to perish without a struggle,
committed themselves on pieces of the wreck to the waves. The chief mate
came to the captain, and said, "We have done all we can, sir, the ship
will sink in a moment;" to which the captain replied, "it cannot be
helped--God's will be done." The vessel gradually settled in the trough
of the sea. The cries of the drowning rose above the sound of the
waters, and were heard at a great distance. Some kept running about the
deck as long as it kept above the waves.
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