"Captain McIntire, of the Sarah, from Belfast, stated that he met the girl, whose name is Ann Jane Thornton, at St. Andrew's, in North America. She was dressed in sailor's clothes, and had all the appearance of having been brought up to that employment. He engaged her at nine dollars a month to act as cook and steward, and considered that she was what she seemed to be, until a few days before the arrival of the vessel in the port of London. It appeared that some of the crew had suspected her sex before she was seen washing in her berth, from the circumstance of her having repeatedly refused to drink grog.
"The Lord Mayor: It has been reported that she was ill-treated by her captain and the crew. I wish to be particularly informed upon that point. Captain McIntire said he would call upon the girl to say whether he had not uniformly treated her with kindness, and whether, when her sex was discovered, the degree of kindness and care was not increased. The girl declared that Captain McIntire had acted towards her with humanity, and had desired her to complain to him if any of the crew attempted to treat her harshly. She had been, in the course of the voyage, struck by some of the sailors, because she could not work as hard as they did—a thing she found it difficult to do in a gale of wind, but she did not tell the captain, as she determined to endure as much as possible, without grumbling.
"The Lord Mayor: Is it possible that this mere girl, for she cannot be more than sixteen or seventeen years of age, performed the duties of a seaman?
"Captain McIntire: It is, my lord. She performed them to admiration. She would run up to hand (sic) the topgallant sail in any sort of weather, and we had a severe passage. Poor girl! she had a hard time of it, she suffered greatly from the wet, but she bore it all excellently, and was a capital seaman.
"The Lord Mayor: Is the account of the romantic pursuit of the person she is said to be attached to correct? Is it true that she went to America after the captain who was said to be her sweetheart?
"McLean said that the account she had given him corresponded with that which had appeared before the public; but she would, herself, mention the particulars.
"Captain McIntire said that he had no doubt of the correctness of her statement. She was not at all given to loquacity. On the contrary, she did the duty of a seaman without a murmur, and had infinitely better use of her hands than of her tongue.
"This description of the female sailor seemed to be accurate. Her hands appeared as if they were covered with thick brown leather gloves, and it was only by repeated questioning the Lord Mayor got from her the facts, of which the following is the substance—
"Ann Jane Thornton stated that she is in the seventeenth year of her age. Her father, who is now a widower, took her and the rest of his family from Gloucestershire, where she was born, to Donegal, when she was six years old. He was owner of stores in that part of Ireland, and in good circumstances, and was always affectionate to her. She regretted that she had quitted her home, for her departure, of which she had given no previous notice to her father, must have caused him many a sorrowful hour. When she was only thirteen years old, she met Captain Alexander Burke, whose father resided in New York, and was the owner of vessels there; and, before she was fifteen, they became strongly attached to each other. Soon after, Burke was obliged to go to New York, and she took up the resolution to follow him. She quitted her father's house accompanied by a maid-servant and a boy, and, having procured a cabin-boy's dress, she exerted herself to obtain a passage to America. The servant-maid and boy took leave of her immediately upon her embarking, the latter being charged with a message to her father, informing him of her intention. By degrees she became reconciled to the labours of her new employment, but she beheld with joy the shores of New York, where she thought her labours would terminate. The moment she landed, she went off in her cabin-boy's dress to the house of Captain Burke's father, and said that she had worked under the captain's orders, and wished to be engaged by him again. It was by the father of the young man she was informed that his son had died only a few days before. America, however, was no place in which to look for sympathy. In the belief that the sea (which no doubt her affection for Burke recommended to her) was a more probable mode of existence than any she could adopt in the dress of her sex, she applied for and obtained a situation as cook and steward in the Adelaide, and, subsequently, in the Rover, in which latter vessel she sailed to St. Andrew's, where she fell in with Captain McIntire. The captain of the Rover had agreed to take her to Belfast, but he received an order from the owners to sail for the West Indies, and, as she was resolved to return to her father as soon as possible, she refused to accompany him. For thirty-one months she had been engaged in these remarkable adventures, and participated in the most severe toils of the crews of which she formed part.
"The Lord Mayor: And are you not weary of so harassing a life?