Soon after the fleet had sailed, the officers of the Ardent united in signing such a representation of her miserable plight as induced Admiral Graves to order her back to Port Royal; and the Jason by not putting to sea with the convoy, from the want of water, never joined him at all. The rest proceeded, and after the vessels that were bound for New York had separated, the whole convoy was reduced to ninety-two or three sail.
On September 8th, the Caton springing a leak, made such alarming complaints, that the admiral directed her and the Pallas, which had also become leaky, to bear away immediately and keep company together, making for Halifax, which then bore north-north-west and was about eighty-seven leagues distant.
The afternoon of September 16th, showing indications of a gale and foul weather from the south-east quarter, every preparation was made on board the flag ship for such an event, not only on account of her own safety, but also by way of example to the rest of the fleet. The admiral collected the ships about six o'clock, and brought to under his main sail on the larboard tack, having all his other sails furled, and his top-gallant yards and masts lowered down.
The wind soon increasing, blew strongly from the east-south-east with a very heavy sea, and about three o'clock in the morning of the 17th flew suddenly round to the contrary point, blowing most tremendously, and accompanied with rain, thunder, and lightning; the Ramilies was taken by the lee, her main sail thrown aback, her main mast went by the board, and her mizen mast half way up; the foretop mast fell over the starboard bow, the foreyard broke in the slings, the tiller snapped in two, and the rudder was nearly torn off. Thus was this capital ship, from being in perfect order, reduced within a few minutes to a mere wreck, by the fury of the blast and the violence of the sea, which acted in opposition to each other. The ship was pooped, the cabin, where the admiral lay, was flooded, his cot bed jerked down by the violence of the shock and the ship's instantaneous revulsion, so that he was obliged to pull on his boots half-leg deep in water, without any stockings, to huddle on his wet clothes, and repair upon deck. On his first coming hither, he ordered two of the lieutenants to examine into the state of the affairs below, and to keep a sufficient number of people at the pumps, while he himself and the captain kept the deck, to encourage the men to clear away the wreck, which by its constant swinging backwards and forwards by every wave against the body of the ship, had beaten off much of the copper from the starboard side, and exposed the seams so much to the sea that the decayed oakum washed out, and the whole frame became at once exceedingly porous and leaky.
At dawn of day they perceived a large ship under their lee, lying upon her side, water-logged, her hands attempting to wear her by first cutting away the mizen mast, and then main mast: hoisting her ensign, with the union downwards, in order to draw the attention of the fleet; but to no purpose, for no succour could be given, and she very soon went down head foremost, the fly of her ensign being the last thing visible. This was the Dutton, formerly an Indiaman, and then a store ship, commanded by a lieutenant of the navy, who in his agitation leaped from her deck into the sea; but, as might be expected, was very soon overwhelmed by the billows. Twelve or thirteen of the crew contrived, however, to slip off with one of the boats, and running with the wind, endeavoured to reach a large ship before them, failing in which, however, and afraid of filling if they attempted to haul up for that purpose, they made up for another ship more to the leeward, who, fortunately descrying them, threw a number of ropes, by the help of which these desperate fellows scrambled up her sides and fortunately saved their lives. Out of ninety-four or ninety-five sail seen the day before scarcely twenty could now be counted; of the ships of war there were discovered the Canada half hull down upon the lee quarter, having her main-top mast and mizen mast gone, the main top damaged, the main yard aloft, and the main sail furled. The Centaur was far to windward, without masts, bowsprit or rudder; and the Glorieux without fore mast, bowsprit, or main-top mast. Of these the two latter perished with all their crews, excepting the captain of the Centaur and a few of his people, who contrived to slip off her stern into one of the boats unnoticed, and thus escaped the fate of the rest.
The Ville de Paris appeared to have received no injury, and was commanded by a most experienced seaman, who had made twenty-four voyages to and from the West Indies, and had, therefore, been pitched upon to lead the ship through the Gulf; nevertheless, she was afterwards buried in the ocean with all on board her, consisting of above eight hundred people. Of the convoy, besides the Dutton before mentioned and the British Queen, seven others were discovered without mast or bowsprit; eighteen lost masts, and several others had actually foundered.
In the course of this day the Canada crossed upon and passed the Ramilies. Some of the trade attempted to follow the Canada, but she ran at such a rate that they soon found it to be in vain, and then returned to the flag ship. The Ramilies had at this time six feet of water in her hold, and the pumps would not free her, the water having worked out the oakum, and her beams amid ship being almost drawn from her clamps.
The admiral therefore gave orders for all the buckets to be manned, and every officer to help towards freeing the ship; the mizen-top sail was set upon the fore mast, the main top-gallant sail on the stump of the mizen mast, and the tiller shipped. In this condition, by bearing away, she scudded on at so good a rate that she held pace with some of the merchantmen.
The day having been spent in baling and pumping, with materially gaining on the water, the captain, in the name of the officers, represented to the admiral the necessity of parting with the guns for the relief of the ship; but he objected that there would then be left no protection for the convoy. At length, however, he consented to their disposing of the fore castle and aftermost quarter-deck guns, together with some of the shot, and other articles of very great weight. The ensuing night was employed in baling and endeavouring to make the pumps useful, for the ballast, by getting into the well, had choked and rendered them useless, and the chains had broken as often as they were repaired. The water had risen to seven feet in the hold. The wind from the eastward drove a vast sea before it, and the ship, being old, strained most violently.