landed, as they deserved to be. Midshipman
Clark fortunately succeeded in shoving off, and pulling some
twenty paces from the brig before she went down. When she was on
the point of sinking beneath us, and engulfing us in the waves, I
gave the order: "Every man save himself who can." Whereupon there
was a simultaneous plunge into the sea, of about sixty officers
and men, each one trying to secure some frail object that had
drifted from the wreck, for the purpose of sustaining himself in
the awful struggle with the sea, which awaited him. Some reached
a grating, some an oar, some a boat's mast, some a hen-coop, &c.,
but many poor fellows sprang into the sea to perish in a few
minutes, not being able to find any object of support. Lieut.
Parker and myself, being both swimmers, were fortunate enough to
reach one of the arm-chest gratings, which afforded us partial
support, but on which we should inevitably have been drowned, if
we had not, when we had swam some twenty or thirty paces, secured
an upper half port which came drifting by us. We lashed this with
lanyards attached to it to our grating, and thenceforth got along
much better. Midshipman Clark, after he had landed the officers
and men under his charge at Verde Island, shoved off a second
time, in obedience to the orders I had given him, at the imminent
peril of his life, for the gale was now blowing with such
violence, and the sea running so heavy, that it seemed impossible
that so small a boat could live, and skirted the Verde Island to
see if it were possible to rescue any of us from the waves. His
efforts were rewarded with partial success, as he picked up
Lieutenant Parker and myself and one of the seamen. As soon as I
landed I sent Midshipman Clark out again, who ventured as far
from the island as he thought his boat would live, but this time
he returned unsuccessful, having been able to descry no floating
object whatever. Lieutenant Claiborne saved himself on a small
hatch about two feet square, used for covering the pump-well, and
which he found floating near the wreck. He was thrown with great
violence upon a reef near Sacrificios, but fortunately escaped
without serious injury. As strange as it may appear to you, there
could not have elapsed more than ten minutes between our being