the frigate would have been got wholly afloat
that evening. All the things which had been thrown overboard had lightened
her, by twenty or thirty centimetres at the most, her draught of water
might certainly have been lessened still more; but it was not done because
the Governor of Senegal objected to throwing the barrels of flour into the
sea, alledging that the greatest scarcity prevailed in the European
factories. These considerations, however, should not have caused it to be
overlooked that we had on board fourteen twenty-four pounders, and that it
would have been easy to throw them overboard, and send them even to a
considerable distance from the frigate, by means of the yard tackle;
besides, the flour barrels might have been carefully fastened together, and
when we were once out of danger, it would have been easy for us to remove
them. This plan might have been executed without any fear of doing much
damage to the flour, which when it is plunged in the water forms round the
inside of the barrel a pretty thick crust, in consequence of the moisture,
so that the interior is preserved from injury: this method was indeed
attempted, but it was given up, because the means employed were
insufficient. More care should have been used, and all the difficulties
would have been conquered; only half measures were adopted, and in all the
manoeuvres great want of decision prevailed.[B2]

If the frigate had been lightened as soon as we struck, perhaps she might
have been saved.[18] The weather, however, as we have already said, was
almost always unfavourable, and often hindered the operations.

Some persons expected to see the frigate got afloat the next day, and their
joy shewed that they were fully persuaded of it: there were indeed some
probabilities, but they were very slight; for the vessel had been merely
got out of its bed. We had hardly succeeded in changing its place to a
distance of about two hundred metres, when the sea began to ebb: the
frigate rested on the sand, which obliged us to suspend for ever our last
operations. If it had been possible to hold her this night to two or three
cables more in the open sea, still lightening her, perhaps, we repeat it,
she might have been placed out of danger.

At night the sky became cloudy, the winds came from the sea, and blew
violently. The sea ran high, and the frigate began to heel with more and
more violence, every moment we expected to see her bulge; consternation
again spr