Mar. My Lord, upon my life the ship did wag; I saw her move.
Wh. Mr. Ingelo, I pray stay awhile before you call the people; it may be God will give us occasion to change the style of our prayers. Fellow-seaman, show me where thou sawest her move.
Mar. My Lord, here, at the head of the frigate, I saw her move, and she moves now,—now she moves! you may see it.
Wh. My old eyes cannot discern it.
Mar. I see it plain, and so do others.
and rights. Whilst they were thus speaking and looking, within less than half a quarter of an hour, the ship herself came off from the sand, and miraculously floated on the water. The ship being thus by the wonderful immediate hand of God, again floating on the sea, the mariners would have been hoisting of their sails, but Whitelocke forbade it, and said he would sail no more that night. But as soon as the ship had floated a good way from the bank of sand, he caused them to let fall their anchors, that they might stay till morning, to see where they were, and spend the rest of the night in giving thanks to God for his most eminent, most miraculous deliverance.
Being driven by the wind about a mile from the sand, there they cast anchor, and fell into discourse of the providences and goodness of God to them in this unhoped-for preservation. One observed, that if Whitelocke had not positively overruled the seamen, and made them, contrary to their own opinions, to take down their sails, but that the ship had run with all her sails spread, and with that force had struck into the sand, it had been impossible for her ever to have come off again, but they must all have perished. Another observed, that the ship did strike so upon the bank of sand, that the wind was on that side of her where the bank was highest, and so the strength of the wind lay to drive the ship from the bank towards the deep water.
Another supposed, that the ship did strike on the shelving part of the bank of sand, and the wind blowing from the higher part of the bank, the weight of the ship thus pressed by the wind, and working towards the lower part of the shelving of the bank, the sand crumbled away from the ship, and thereby and with the wind she was set on-float again. Another observed, that if the ship had struck higher on the bank or deeper, when her sails had been spread, with the force of her way, they could not in the least probability have been saved.
Another observed, that through the goodness of God the wind rose higher, and came more to that side of the ship where the bank of sand was highest, after the ship was struck, which was a great means of her coming off; and that, as soon as she was floated, the wind was laid and came about again to another quarter. Another observed, that it being at that time ebbing water was a great means of their preservation; because the ship being so far struck into the sand, and so great a ship, a flowing water could not have raised her; but upon the coming in of the tide she would questionless have been broke in pieces.
The mariners said, that if God had not loved the landmen more than the seamen they should never have come off from this danger. Every one made his observations. Whitelocke concluded them to this purpose: