thered me; for, you see, there
had been one or two casks of tar on the decks, which had stove when the
ship was going down, and the tar got up to the top of the water before I
did. It prevented me from seeing at first, but I heard the guns firing
as signals of distress." Here Turner drank some ale.

"Well," said he, after a short pause, "I may as well finish my story.
As soon as I could clear the tar from my eyes, I saw the main topsail
halyard-block about level with the water's edge, about eight or ten
yards from me; so I swam to it and rode on it, holding on by the
halyards, and then I looked about me. The fore, main, and mizen-tops
were all above water, as was a part of the bowsprit, and also part of
the ensign-staff, with the flag hoisted--for, you see, messmates, we
went down in only thirteen and a half fathom water, that is, about
eighty feet; and, as I said before, she measured sixty-six feet from the
keelson up to the taffrail; and she grounded as nearly upright as a
vessel could; for the lighter, which was fast to leeward when she went
down, caught the main yard, which helped to right her as she sank--but
the lighter went down with her. Well, as I looked round, I saw the
admiral's baker in the mizen shrouds, and there was the body of the
woman I had dragged out of the port rolling about close to him. The
baker was an Irishman, of the name of Claridge; and I called out to him,
`Bob, reach out your hand and catch hold of that woman, I daresay she is
not dead.'

"He said, `She's dead enough; it's no use to lay hold of her.'

"I answered, `She is not dead.' He caught hold of the woman and hung
her head over one of the rattlings of the mizen shrouds, and there she
swung by her chin till a wash came and lifted her off, and then she
rolled about again. Just then one of the captains of the frigates came
up in his boat. I waved my hand towards the woman--he stopped pulling,
the men dragged her into the boat, and laid her in the stern-sheets.

"`My man,' said the captain, `I must pick up those who are in more
danger than you.'

"`All right, sir,' said I; `I'm safe moored here.'

"There was one of our men hanging on the main-stay, and roaring like a
bull, as he tried to climb by it out of the water. Had he only remained
quiet, he would have done well enough. The boat took him off first, and
the others of the people who were clinging about the masts and rigging,
including the baker and myself. It then pull