62 FALL FROM ALOFT. 



tinder tlie tri-color; but we learned afterward that 

 she was a Boston ship. Difterent reasons were 

 assigned by different individuals as to the cause of 

 the unsearaanlike conduct in managing the Carrew ; 

 some stating that they distinctly heard her captain 

 ask ours for a porpoise iron, and supposed that he 

 came close to us in order to have it handed aboard 

 W'ithout the bother of lowering a boat; whilst others, 

 less charitable, stated that she was loaded with liquor 

 from the Mauritius: that the captain had broken 

 bulk, and imbibed so much that it had set his wits 

 wool-cratherino;. As to the first reason assifirned, 

 having heard nothing regarding the iron, I can give 

 no opinion ; as to the second, not having data suffi- 

 cient to draw so sweeping a charge from, I will not 

 advance so gross an accusation, but allow the matter 

 to rest: the public, of course, having heard from the 

 master of the Carrew his version of the matter, as we 

 saw by the papers that he had reported the collision 

 on his arriving at port. On the whole, both vessels 

 were extremely fortunate in escaping with so little 

 injury; as two vessels seldom come into contact, even 

 in port, where they are in smooth w^ater, without the 

 result being much more disastrous than in our case. 

 It is said that misfortunes seldom come singly ; 

 and, indeed, in the experience of a lifetime, circum- 

 stances seem to justify the correctness of the adage. 

 So it was in our case. A short time previous to our 

 last misfortune, the larboard watch was sent aloft to 

 double reef the foretopsail. It was about half an hour 

 after eight bells, in the first watch at night — the watch 

 below had turned in, but were not as yet sleeping — 

 when, directly after the watch had manned the fore- 



