he went down,
many hastened up the shrouds and masts. The captain was seen clinging to
the ropes; the fourth mate tried to persuade him to exert himself, but
he submitted without resistance to his fate.

The hull struck the ground, while part of the masts and rigging remained
above water. On the last cast of the lead, eleven fathoms had been
found, and about one hundred and eighty men still clung to the rigging.
The night was dark and frosty, the sea incessantly breaking upon them.
Shocking scenes occurred, in the attempts made by some to obtain places
of greater safety. One seaman had ascended to a considerable height, and
endeavored to climb yet higher; another seized hold of his leg; he drew
his clasp-knife, and deliberately cut the miserable wretch's fingers
asunder; he dropped and was killed by the fall. Many perished in the
shrouds. A sergeant had secured his wife there; she lost her hold, and
in her last struggle for life, bit a large piece from her husband's arm,
which was dreadfully lacerated.

About an hour after she went down, the survivors were cheered by hearing
the sound of vessels beating the waves at a distance; they hailed a
sloop-rigged vessel, with two boats astern of her. Their voices must
have been drowned by the waves. By twelve many more had perished. Some
from cold and fatigue could no longer retain their hold; every instant
those who still hung on, were shocked by the splash, which told that
another of their number had yielded to his fate. In a short time, boats
were again heard near them, but they did not, though repeatedly hailed,
come near enough to take any on board; an act of cold and calculating
timidity, which could not be justified by the excuse, that they feared
lest all, eager to be saved, should have jumped down, and borne them to
the bottom.

At length two sloops, which had heard the guns of distress, anchored
close to the wreck, took off the survivors, twenty at a time, from the
shrouds, and in the morning conveyed them to Weymouth; so far from
crowding into the boats, they got off one by one, as called upon by
those who commanded the boats. One still remained; the sixth mate
ascended the mast and found him in a state of insensibility; he bore him
down on his back, and with his burden reached the boat in safety; but
the delivered person died the next day.

When the awful words were heard, "The ship must go down," three of the
cadets went into the cabin, where they stood for a sh