danger.

The master of the Defence reported to Captain Atkins that the St.
George had gone on shore, and that the Cressy had veered and was
standing to the southward,--at the same time pointing out the great
danger the ship was in, and recommending that he should follow the
example of the Cressy. The captain inquired whether the admiral had
made the signal to part company; upon being answered in the negative,
he replied, 'I will never desert my admiral in the hour of danger and
distress.'

At about six o'clock A.M., the hands were turned up to wear ship, but
before this could be accomplished she struck, the sea made a breach
over her, and washed several men overboard.

The captain gave orders to fire minute guns, and cut away the masts.
Five or six guns only had been fired, before they broke adrift, so
that it was impossible to fire any more; but providentially these had
been heard by the look-out men on shore, to whose assistance may be
attributed the preservation of the few lives that were saved.

The waves swept over the vessel, forcing numbers of the crew down the
hatchways, the guns and other heavy articles had broken loose, killing
some, breaking the arms and legs of others, whose agonizing cries
served only to add to the horrors of a scene scarcely within the power
of description.

The captain at this time stood on the poop, holding on only by a
howitzer that was lashed before the mizenmast, the officers and crew
clinging to other parts of the wreck. The boats were all stove, except
the pinnace, in which about twenty men had collected, when a sea,
breaking over the wreck, washed her overboard, capsized her, and all
perished.

Another sea struck the Defence with such excessive violence as to lift
a spare anchor from its berth, throw it up on end, killing in its fall
upon the forecastle about thirty men. The booms were washed away, and
with them nearly one hundred men, who were clinging to the different
spars.

The following account of the escape of one of her crew is so
interesting, that it has been thought better to leave it as nearly as
possible in his own words, than to alter it for the sake of brevity:--

'I got on one side of the booms that were floating among the rest of
the wreck. At that time every man, except two, John Platt and Ralph
Teasel, two of the men who were saved, were washed off. Myself and
several more were at the same time swept off the mizen-top. I then
made the best of my way fro