48 SUCCESSFUL ISSUE. [1843 



take five hours sleep, and at nine o'clock orders were issued 

 to embark. The inclination of the ship remained at forty- 

 five degrees, and a long plumb line was attached to the 

 foremost cabin bulk head to indicate the slightest altera- 

 tion. The water on the ebb fell as low as the star- 

 board main-deck waterways, and until near dead low 

 water continued to flow out of the scuttles made in the 

 decks for its escape ; these were afterwards closed, as well 

 as the scuppers and main-deck ports, as high, at least, as 

 the lashings would admit. The chain pumps were put 

 in motion, and cleared the holds to five feet. The lever 

 lashings were then brought taut and wedged, and the 

 greatest strain brought upon the sheer, as well as the 

 topping lift purchases, which were then belayed; by 

 which arrangement our whole remaining force could be 

 employed for the pumps and mast head purchases. 



Our first division at the pump had just been relieved 

 and sent into the Tope for their sherbet and rest, when 

 we found that the water in the holds was rapidly di- 

 minishing. The speedy rising of the flood tide gave 

 very ominous notice of the great strain on the levers ; 

 they cracked with one or two reports which made me 

 very uneasy, but as it was confined to their inner ends I 

 still retained confidence in them. About the same mo- 

 ment, the plumb began to vibrate, and the officer watch- 

 ing it reported her "moving' '. This excited those stationed 

 at the mast head purchases, and the leading man, strik- 

 ing up an improvisation adapted to the moment, or a 

 burlesque on the croakers who declared the ship never 

 could be recovered, they ran the falls rapidly in, and she 

 righted to thirty degrees. The pumps soon freed her, 



