Fifty-two Stories of the British Navy, from Damme to Trafalgar.

by Alfred H. Miles

"We soon found our account in baling; the spare pump had been put down the fore hatchway, and a pump shifted to the fish-room; but the motion of the ship had washed the coals so small that they reached every part of the ship, and the pumps were soon choked. However, the water by noon had considerably diminished by working the buckets; but there appeared no prospect of saving the ship if the gale continued. The labour was too great to hold out without water: yet the people worked without a murmur, and indeed with cheerfulness.

"At this time the weather was more moderate, and a couple of spars were got ready for shears to set up a jury fore mast; but as the evening came on the gale again increased. We had seen nothing this day but the ship that had lost her main mast, and she appeared to be as much in want of assistance as ourselves, having fired guns of distress; and before night I was told her fore mast was gone.

"The Centaur laboured so much that I had scarcely a hope she could swim till morning. However, by great exertion with the chain pumps and baling, we held our own; but our sufferings for want of water were very great, and many of the people could not be restrained from drinking salt water.

"At daylight (the 11th) there was no vessel in sight; and flashes from guns having been seen in the night, we feared the ship we had seen the preceding day had foundered. Towards ten o'clock in the forenoon the weather grew more moderate, the water diminished in the hold, and the people were encouraged to redouble their efforts to get the water low enough to break a cask of fresh water out of the ground tier; and some of the most resolute of the seamen were employed in the attempt. At noon we succeeded with one cask, which, though little, was a seasonable relief. All the officers, passengers, and boys, who were not of the profession of seamen, had been employed in thrumming a sail, which was passed under the ship's bottom, and I thought had some effect. The shears were raised for the fore mast; the weather looked promising, the sea fell, and at night we were able to relieve at the pumps and baling every two hours. By the morning of the 20th the fore hold was cleared of the water, and we had the comfortable promise of a fine day. It proved so, and I was determined to make use of it with all possible exertion. I divided the ship's company, with officers attending them, into parties, to raise the jury fore-mast; to heave over the lower-deck guns; to clear the wreck of the fore and after holds; to prepare the machine for steering the ship, and to work the pumps. By night the after hold was as clear as when the ship was launched; for, to our astonishment, there was not a shovel of coals remaining, twenty chaldrons having been pumped out since the commencement of the gale. What I have called the wreck of the hold was the bulkheads of the after hold, fish-room, and spirit-rooms. The standards of the cockpit, an immense quantity of staves and wood, and part of the lining of the ship were thrown overboard, that if the water should again appear in the hold we might have no impediment in baling. All the guns were overboard, the fore mast secured, and the machine, which was to be similar to that with which the Ipswich was steered, was in great forwardness; so that I was in hopes, the moderate weather continuing, that I should be able to steer the ship by noon the following day, and at least save the people on some of the western islands. Had we had any other ship in company with us, I should have thought it my duty to have quitted the Centaur this day.

"This night the people got some rest by relieving the watches; but in the morning of the 21st we had the mortification to find that the weather again threatened, and by noon it blew a storm. The ship laboured greatly and the water appeared in the fore and after hold, and increased. The carpenter also informed me that the leathers were nearly consumed; and likewise, that the chains of the pumps, by constant exertion and the friction of the coals, were considered as nearly useless.

"As we had now no other resource but baling, I gave orders that scuttles should be cut through the deck to introduce more buckets into the hold, and all the sail-makers were employed, night and day, in making canvas buckets; and the orlop deck having fallen in on the larboard side, I ordered the sheet cable to be tossed overboard. The wind at this time was at west, and being on the larboard tack, many schemes had been practised to wear the ship, that we might drive into a less boisterous latitude, as well as approach the western islands; but none succeeded; and having a weak carpenter's crew they were hardly sufficient to attend the pumps, so that we could not make any progress with the steering machine. Another sail had been thrummed and got over, but we did not find its use; indeed, there was no prospect but in a change of weather. A large leak had been discovered and stopped in the fore hold, but the ship appeared so weak from her labouring that it was clear she could not last long. The after cockpit had fallen in, the fore cockpit the same, with all the store-rooms down: the stern post was so loose that, as the ship rolled, the water rushed in on either side in great streams, which we could not stop.

"Night came on, with the same dreary prospect as that of the preceding day, and was passed in continual labour. Morning came (the 22nd) without our seeing anything, or any change of weather, and the day was spent with the same struggles to keep the ship above water, pumping and baling at the hatchways and scuttles. Towards night another of the chain pumps was rendered quite useless, by one of the rollers being displaced at the bottom of the pump, and this was without remedy, there being too much water in the well to get to it; we also had but six leathers remaining, so that the fate of the ship was not far off. Still the labour went on without any apparent despair, every officer taking his share of it, and the people always cheerful and obedient.

"During the night the water increased, but about seven in the morning of the 23rd I was informed that an unusual quantity of water appeared, all at once, in the fire hold, which, upon my going forward to be convinced, I found but too true; the stowage of the hold ground tier was all in motion, so that in a short time there was not a whole cask to be seen. We were convinced the ship had sprung a fresh leak. Another sail had been thrumming all night, and I was giving directions to place it over the bows, when I perceived the ship settling by the head, the lower-deck bow ports being even with the water.

"At this period the carpenter acquainted me the well was staved in, destroyed by the wreck of the hold, and the chain pumps displaced and totally useless. There was nothing left but to redouble our efforts in baling, but it became difficult to fill the buckets, from the quantity of staves, planks, anchor stocks, and yard-arm pieces which were now washed from the wings and floating from side to side with the motion of the ship. The people, till this period, had laboured, as if determined to conquer their difficulties, without a murmur or without a tear; but now, seeing their efforts useless, many of them burst into tears, and wept like children.

"I gave orders for the anchors, of which we had two remaining, to be thrown overboard, one of which (the spare anchor) had been most surprisingly hove in upon the forecastle and midships when the ship had been upon her beam-ends, and gone through the deck.