The wreck of the “Cerberus.”
We were thus employed when the carpenter came to the captain with consternation in his countenance, and told him that the pumps would no longer work, for, the shot-lockers being destroyed, the shot as well as the ballast had got into the well, and completely choked it up.
“Well, my lads,” cried the captain, “we must try what baling will do, and lightening the ship by every means in our power.”
Those who had been working at the pumps, and some others, were now divided into gangs under different officers, and were employed in getting rid of the heaviest things which could be reached. Some hove the guns overboard, others got up the weightier stores, the boatswain’s party being engaged in chopping up the cables and throwing them into the sea.
While my messmates and I were hard at work with the rest, I saw the captain beckon Nettleship to him. They talked for a minute or more. Directly afterwards Nettleship came to where Tom and I were at work with Larry and some of the men. “The captain has given me charge to try and save some of you youngsters,” he said. “Life is sweet, and I won’t deny that I am glad to have the chance of preserving my own with honour. You tell Tom Pim and your boy Larry. I’ll speak to some of our other messmates, and try to pick out a few trusty men who I know are cool hands, and we will try and get a boat into the water. It will be no easy matter,—it may, I warn you, hasten our deaths; but the captain is satisfied that the ship can’t float many hours longer. He argued the point, and showed me that if we don’t get off as he directed, we shall not escape at all, as numbers will be rushing for the boats when they discover that the ship must go down.”
Matters were growing rapidly worse. Even now I don’t like to think of that dreadful night which followed. When morning broke, the number of ships in sight had much diminished. The sea raged as furiously as ever, the wind blew with fearful force. All hands had been toiling away. Nearly every one began to see that our efforts had been in vain. A loud noise was heard like that of an explosion coming from far down in the depths of the ship. The carpenter reported that the water in the hold had blown up the orlop deck. It was very evident that the ship was settling down. Many of the men who had been looked upon as the bravest now gave way to despair, and went below, crying out to their messmates to come and lash them into their hammocks. Other stout fellows were in tears as they thought of their country and those dear to them, whom they were never to see again. Some, though they must have known it would be of no use, were lashing themselves to gratings and small rafts, which they had formed of spars. Larry wanted me to do the same.
“Shure, Mr Terence, you and Mr Pim and I will be able to manage a raft between us, and we’ll get aboard one of the ships in better plight than we are,” he said.
I pointed out to him the distance the ships were from us, and the impossibility of reaching one of them. Some of the poor fellows launched their rafts overboard, but were quickly swallowed up by the sea. Even the lieutenants went below; and, strange as it may seem, few of the men remained on deck. Tom Pim and I, however, kept together,
with Larry, who would not leave me. Presently Nettleship came up.