ror-stricken victims the fate that awaited them. How few were now
left, of the many who, but a little before, inhabited our bark! While
the moon yet shone, three men were seen to rush from the middle to the
stern of the boat. A wave came rushing on. It passed over the deck.
One only, of the three, was left. He attempted to gain his former
position. Another wave came. He had barely time to reach a large
timber, to which he clung, when this wave struck him, and he too was
missing. As the wave passed away, the heads of two of these men were
seen above the water; but they appeared to make no effort to swim. The
probability is, that the violence with which they were hurled into the
sea disabled them. They sunk to rise no more.
"During this time, Mr Lovegreen, of Charleston, continued to ring the
boat's bell, which added if possible to the gloom. It sounded, indeed,
like the funeral knell over the departed dead. Never before, perhaps,
was a bell tolled at such a funeral as this. While in this situation,
and reflecting on the necessity of being always prepared for the
realities of eternity, our attention was arrested by the appearance of a
lady, climbing upon the outside of the boat, abaft the wheel near where
we were. Her head was barely above the deck on which we stood, and she
was holding to it, in a most perilous manner. She implored help,
without which she must soon have fallen into the deep beneath, and
shared the fate of the many who had already gone. The writer ran to her
aid, but was unable to raise her to the deck. Mr Woodburn, of New
York, now came, and, with his assistance, the lady was rescued; she was
then lashed to a large piece of timber, by the side of another lady, the
only remaining place that afforded any prospect of safety. The former
lady (Mrs Shroeder) was washed ashore on this piece of wreck, one of
the two who survived. The writer having relinquished to this lady the
place he had occupied, was compelled to get upon a large piece of the
boat, that lay near, under the lee of the wheel; this was almost
immediately driven from its place into the breakers, which instantly
swept him from it, and plunged him deep into the water. With some
difficulty he regained his raft. He continued to cling to this
fragment, as well as he could, but was repeatedly washed from it.
Sometimes when plunged deep into the water, he came up under it. After
encountering all the difficulties that seemed possibl
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