Captain John Crane, 1800-1815

by Thomas Wallace Knox

"Then Captain Woods ordered the stanchions and bulwarks cut away," said one of the men, "between the fore and main rigging, to let the water run off the decks, and to make it easier for launching the boats. Food and water were prepared to be placed in the boats, and a lookout was stationed aloft to see if any sail was in sight.

"There was no ship to be seen," he continued, "and then the captain gave orders to get out the boats. The long boat was got out first; but as she was being lowered to the side a sea broke over, and half filled her with water. Four men jumped into the boat and bailed her out just as quick as they could. Then a quantity of food and water was placed in her, and she was trailed back at the stern of the ship. A warp was passed over the larboard bow of the ship, outside of the forerigging and into the gangway to the boat, leaving sufficient slack to allow her to go astern. Just as she was abreast of the stern a sea struck her, and stove in two planks of the larboard bilge.

"It seemed as though we were doomed," said the man from the Evelyn; but the captain cheered us and ordered some blankets thrown into the boat to stop the leak. The blankets were thrust over the hole, and one of the men stood on them to keep them in. Then the first mate, with eight more of the crew, got into the boat. The mate nailed a plank over the leak, so that with the help of the blankets it was pretty well stopped.

The boat had now drifted to the weather quarter of the Evelyn, and it was hauled up towards the ship with the intention of taking the passengers aboard; but just as they were about to do so another sea struck the boat, and when it receded from the ship the sudden jerk broke the rope and let the boat go adrift.

The crew attempted to pull it to the ship, but owing to the quantity of water in her they could not succeed. Then they left off pulling and began to bale the boat out. She drifted farther and farther away, and we very soon saw there was no hope of our getting to her.

"There were then eight of us left on board,—the eight that you have rescued. We had made preparations for lowering the quarter-boat, and now that the long boat was gone we went at work as fast as we could. Owing to the pumps having been stopped, the ship was settling deeper into the water every minute, and threatening to go out from under us before long. We put some food and water on board, and a few articles of clothing for the women; and then we were lucky enough to get the boat afloat without accident, though she took in several barrels of water before we were able to get clear from the ship. It was understood that we were to stay in our places just as we got into them from the ship. Captain Woods took one of his compasses, and enough of his instruments to work out our position; but the instruments were of very little use to us at the start, as it made no difference to us where our position was when we were hundreds of miles from land in every direction.

"Captain Woods is a hard master, and he keeps regular man-of-war discipline on his ship. We have often thought him a very severe man, but his severity came in handy when we were cast away in the boat.

"We had four oars, and there was a mast and a place to ship it, but there was no sail; we made a sail out of a piece of canvas and got along very well. Our nearest land was the Bermuda Islands, and so we steered in that direction, after seeing the ship go down, which she did within an hour after we took to the boat. She plunged headforemost, throwing her stern completely into the air; I suppose that's because the heaviest part of her cargo was forward.

"The captain served out the provisions and water very sparingly, and we grumbled a little at the way he treated us, but you may be sure we didn't grumble out aloud, or we might have been pitched overboard. It was about two in the afternoon when we saw the ship go down. The captain said it was no use wasting our strength rowing, and so we simply lay there on the water until we could rig the sail I told you about. That sail was useful to us in more ways than one, for every time there came a shower we spread it out and got all the water we could. As it turned out, we had water and provisions enough for our purpose in the way the captain served them out; but I'm afraid we would have run very short if we had been obliged to go to the Bermudas in that open boat.

"The second day we were on the water we saw a sail, just a speck off on the southern horizon. We hoisted a signal of distress by putting the British colors on our mast with the Union down, and we took to the oars and rowed as hard as we could to get near the vessel's track. But we were too far off to be seen by the naked eye, and even if her lookout had had a strong telescope it wouldn't have been easy for him to find us. It was terrible for us to see that ship go on and sail away out of sight, and I thought Mrs. Graham would go crazy then and there. She cried and laughed, and laughed and cried, and went into hysterics, when she found there was no hope of rescue by that ship. Her husband tried to cheer her by saying that we would quite likely sight another ship in a day or two, but it was very hard for him to comfort her. The girls bore up the bravest of all, and I can't help admiring them. They were a good deal frightened at first, when they got into the boat and saw the Evelyn go down into the Atlantic, but they became quite cheery afterwards, and did a good deal to bring their mother back to her senses.