g and
groaning, when a sea struck her larboard broadside, throwing her over on
her beam-ends, so that the starboard side of the main-deck and the guns
were under water.

It would be impossible after this to detail what occurred in a clear and
correct manner, as the noise and confusion were so terrible. At every
sea hurled against the sides of the vessel the resistance to them became
less. What with the crashing of the beams, the breaking up of the
timbers, and the guns to windward, as their fastenings gave way,
tumbling with a tremendous crash to leeward, and passing through the
ship's sides, the occasional screams mixed with the other noise, the
pouring, dashing, and washing of the waters, the scene was appalling.
At last, one louder crash than any of the former announced that the
vessel had yielded to the terrific force of the waves, and had parted
amidships. After this there was little defence against them, even where
we were clinging, for the waters poured in, as if maddened by their
success, through the passage formed by the separation of the vessel, and
came bounding on, as if changing their direction on purpose to overwhelm
us. As the two parts of the vessel were thrown higher up, the shocks
were more severe, and indeed, the waves appeared to have more power than
before, in consequence of their being so increased in weight from the
quantity of sand which was mixed up with them. Another crash! the sides
of the after-part of the vessel had given way, and the heavy guns,
disengaged, flew to leeward, and we found ourselves without shelter from
the raging waters.

The part of the wreck on which Cross and I were sitting was so
completely on its beam-ends that the deck was within a trifle of being
perpendicular. To walk was impossible: all that we could do was to
slide down into the water to leeward; but little was to be gained by
that, as there was no egress. We therefore remained for more than an
hour in the same position, wearied with clinging, and the continual
suffocation we received from the waves, as they deluged us. We
perceived that the wreck was gradually settling down deeper and deeper
in the sand; it was more steady in consequence, but at the same time the
waves had more power over the upper part; and so it proved; for one
enormous sea came in, blowing up the quarter deck over our heads,
tearing away the planking and timbers, and hurling them to leeward.
This, at all events, set us free, although i