Mitchel informed the commodore, that
besides the loss of his masts, which was all that had appeared to
us, the ship had then no less than seven feet of water in her hold,
although his officers and men had been kept constantly at the pump for
the last twenty-four hours.

This last circumstance was indeed a most terrible accumulation to the
other extraordinary distresses of the Gloucester, and required, if
possible, the most speedy and vigorous assistance; which captain
Mitchel begged the commodore to send him: But the debility of our
people, and our own immediate preservation, rendered it impossible for
the commodore to comply with his request. All that could be done was
to send our boat on board for a more particular condition of the ship;
and it was soon suspected that the taking her people on board us, and
then destroying her, was the only measure that could be prosecuted in
the present emergency, for the security of their lives and our own.

Our boat soon returned with a representation of the state of the
Gloucester, and of her several defects, signed by Captain Mitchel and
all his officers; by which it appeared, that she had sprung a leak by
the stern-post being loose, and working with every roll of the ship,
and by two beams a midships being broken in the orlope; no part of
which the carpenters reported was possible to be repaired at sea. That
both officers and men had worked twenty-four hours at the pump without
intermission, and were at length so fatigued, that they could continue
their labour no longer; but had been forced to desist, with seven feet
of water in the hold, which covered their cask, so that they could
neither come at fresh water, nor provision: That they had no mast
standing, except the fore-mast, the mizen-mast, and the mizen
top-mast, nor had they any spare masts to get up in the room of those
they had lost: That the ship was besides extremely decayed in every
part, for her knees and clamps were all worked quite loose, and her
upper works in general were so loose, that the quarter-deck was
ready to drop down: And that her crew was greatly reduced, for there
remained alive on board her no more than seventy-seven, men, eighteen
boys, and two prisoners, officers included; and that of this whole
number, only sixteen men and eleven boys were capable of keeping the
deck, and several of these very infirm.

The commodore, on the perusal of this melancholy representation,
presently ordered them a suppl