unate ladies and their companions, nearly twenty minutes after
Mr. Meriton had quitted the ship. Soon after the latter left the
round-house, the captain asked what was become of him, to which Mr.
Rogers replied, that he was gone on deck to see what could be done.
After this, a heavy sea breaking over the ship, the ladies exclaimed,
"O poor Meriton! he is drowned! had he staid with us he would have
been safe!" and they all, particularly Miss Mary Pierce, expressed
great concern at the apprehension of his loss. On this occasion Mr.
Rogers offered to go and call in Mr. Meriton, but it was opposed by
the ladies, from an apprehension that he might share the same fate.

The sea was now breaking in at the fore-part of the ship, and reached
as far as the mainmast. Captain Pierce gave Mr. Rogers a nod, and they
took a lamp and went together into the stern-gallery, where, after
viewing the rocks for some time, Captain Pierce asked Mr. Rogers if he
thought there was any possibility of saving the girls; to which he
replied, he feared there was none; for they could only discover the
black face of the perpendicular rock, and not the cavern which
afforded shelter to those who escaped. They then returned to the
round-house, where Mr. Rogers hung up the lamp, and Captain Pierce sat
down between his two daughters, struggling to suppress the parental
tears which burst into his eyes.

The sea continuing to break in very fast, Mr. Macmanus, a midshipman,
and Mr. Schutz, asked Mr. Rogers what they could do to escape. "Follow
me," he replied, and they all went into the stern gallery, and from
thence to the upper-quarter-gallery on the poop. While there, a very
heavy sea fell on board and the round-house gave way; Mr. Rogers heard
the ladies shriek at intervals, as if the water reached them; the
noise of the sea, at other times, drowning their voices.

Mr. Brimer had followed him to the poop, where they remained together
about five minutes; when on the breaking of this heavy sea, they
jointly seized a hen-coop. The same wave which proved fatal to some of
those below, carried him and his companion to the rock, on which they
were violently dashed and miserably bruised.

Here on the rock were twenty-seven, but it now being low water, and as
they were convinced that on the flowing of the tide all must be washed
off, many tried to get to the back or the sides of the cavern, beyond
the reach of the returning sea. Scarcely more than six, besides M