im, and we both went
under a tier of vessels that were hung at the buoy, Battle Bridge,
London. We came to the surface, but were soon carried under another tier
of vessels, and had not the mate have come to our assistance we should
have gone under a third tier, but he came at the last extremity and
saved us. Charles belonged to a very respectable family living at
Snaith, where I once called to see his mother, who was a widow. Her son
Thomas and I became intimate friends, after I had rescued Charles, and
he often said he thought as much of me as he did of his own brother.
Alas! the two brothers met with untimely deaths. On the morning of
January the 25th, 18--, I saw Thomas put out to sea, and in about half
an hour the boat capsized, and he and five other men were drowned.
Charles got married, and became master of a vessel, but alas! he and
the crew were drowned. _Witnesses_--William Howarth, Joseph Johnson.

_Ninth._--JOHN KENT.* (1828.)

He was a native of Hull, and a shipmate of mine on board the
'Westmoreland.' While in a state of intoxication he jumped overboard
into the Diamond Harbour, Quebec, intending to swim to land, but sank at
a distance from the vessel. A boat, manned with foreigners, was passing
at the time, and Captain Knill called to them to pick up Kent. They
pulled the boat towards him, but Kent, in trying to lay hold of it,
missed his grasp, and the next moment he was under the boat. The captain
then called to us on the stage, and said, 'Be sharp with your boat, or
_the man_ will be drowned.' We did not then know who _the man_ was, but,
with the quickness of true sailors, we were in the boat in a minute. By
this time he had been carried to a great distance from the ship, as the
ebb tide was running strong and fast. I was forward in the boat, and on
reaching the spot where he was last seen, I plunged under the water, and
in a moment I saw the man, and was surprised to find it was my friend,
John Kent. I dived to a depth of twenty-five feet, and had him right
above me; I soon had hold of him, and though I had to swim against the
ebb tide, we were soon at the boat's side, when I said to the men,
'Never mind me, pull him into the boat,' but he had such fast hold of my
arm that they had to pull us in together, and even then it was with
great difficulty they broke his hold of me. He was so far gone that for
a long time we did not know whether he was living or dead. At length he
showed signs of life, but r