remarkable Effects of a Shipwreck. 203 
was about twenty-eight, began to talk incoherently, in the 
same manner as the other. He struggled longer, but died in 
the same way, at about eleven at night. The cook died in 
the forenoon of the succeeding day. He was a low-spirited 
man, and desponded from the beginning. All the rest held 
out, as has been already mentioned, though sorely pinched 
with cold and hunger, till they were taken up about three in 
the afternoon. Mr. Amy at said that his hands and feet were 
swelled and numb, though not absolutely senseless ; he felt a 
tightness at the pit of his stomach, and his mouth and lips 
were parched ; but what distressed him most was cramps in 
the muscles of his sides and hips, which were drawn into 
knots. Though immersed in the sea, they were all of them 
very thirsty ; and though exposed to such severe cold, Mr. 
Amy at himself was not drowsy, nor were any of the men 
drowsy, nor did sleep precede death in those that perished. 
These facts are curious. 
Reflecting on the particulars of this melancholy story, there 
seemed no doubt that the death of the two masters was to be 
imputed to their peculiar position on the wreck. Exposed to 
heavy showers of sleet and snow, they might suffer from being 
wet with fresh, rather than salt water : they might also suffer 
from being exposed to the cold of the atmosphere, probably 
seven or eight degrees greater than that of the sea. The 
chilling effects of evaporation might operate against them, 
promoted as these must have been by the high wind ; or they 
might receive injury from their frequent immersions in the sea, 
producing an alternation in the media surrounding. This last 
supposition did not, indeed, strike me at this time ; the others 
dwelt on my mind. 
