tch to "right ship," and said again that the
ship could not bear it. Myself and a good many more were at the
waist of the ship and at the gangways, and heard what passed, as we
knew the danger, and began to feel aggrieved; for there were some
capital seamen aboard, who knew what they were about quite as well
or better than the officers.
"'In a very short time, in a minute or two, I should think,
Lieutenant (now Admiral Sir P.H.) Durham ordered the drummer to be
called to beat to "right ship." The drummer was called in a moment,
and the ship was then just beginning to sink. I jumped off the
gangway as soon as the drummer was called. There was no time for him
to beat his drum, and I do not know that he had even had time to get
it. I ran down to my station, and, by the time I had got there, the
men were tumbling down the hatchways one over another, to get to
their stations as quick as possible to "right ship." My station was
at the third gun from the head of the ship, on the starboard side of
the lower gun-deck close by where the cable passes. I said to the
second captain of our gun whose name was Carrell, (for every gun has
a first and second captain, though they are only sailors,) "Let us
try to bouse our gun out, without waiting for the drum, as it will
help to 'right ship.'" We pushed the gun, but it ran back upon us,
and we could not start him. The water then rushed in at nearly all
the port-holes of the larboard side of the lower gun-deck, and I
directly said to Carrell, "Ned, lay hold of the ring-bolt, and jump
out of the port-hole; the ship is sinking, and we shall all be
drowned." He laid hold of the ring-bolt, and jumped out at the
port-hole into the sea: I believe he was drowned, for I never saw
him afterwards. I immediately got out at the same port-hole, which
was the third from the head of the ship on the starboard side of the
lower gun-deck, and when I had done so, I saw the port-hole as full
of heads as it could cram, all trying to get out.
"'I caught hold of the best bower-anchor, which was just above me,
to prevent falling back again into the port-hole, and seized hold of
a woman who was trying to get out of the same place. I dragged her
out. The ship was full of Jews, women, and people, selling all sorts
of things. I threw the woman from me, and saw all the heads drop
back again in at the port-hole, for the ship had got so much on her
larboard side, that the starboard port-holes were as much upright a
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