TIIE WELLFLEET OYSTERMAN. 
85 
boat that was by the shore, for there was a vessel in dis¬ 
tress, and he, being an old man, first ate his breakfast, 
and then walked over to the top of the hill by the shore, 
and sat down there, having found a comfortable seat, to 
see the ship wrecked. She was on the bar, only a quar¬ 
ter of a mile from him, and stiU nearer to the men on 
the beach, who had got a boat ready, but could render 
no assistance on account of the breakers, for there was 
a pretty high sea running. There were the passengers 
aU crowded together in the forward part of the ship, and 
some were getting out of the cabin windows and were 
drawn on deck by the others. 
“ I saw the captain get out his boat,” said he; he 
had one little one; and then they jumped into it one after 
another, down as straight as an arrow. I counted them. 
There were nine. One was a w^oman, and she jumped 
as straight as any of them. Then they shoved off. The 
sea took them back, one wave went over them, and when 
they came up there were six still clinging to the boat; I 
counted them. The next wave turned the boat bottom 
upward, and emptied them aU out. None of them ever 
came ashore alive. There were the rest of them aU 
crowded together on the forecastle, the other parts of the 
ship being under water. They had seen all that hap¬ 
pened to the boat. At length a heavy sea separated the 
forecastle from the rest of the wreck, and set it inside of 
the worst breaker, and the boat was able to reach them, 
and it saved all that were left, but one woman.” 
He also told us of the steamer Cambria’s getting 
aground on his shore a few months before we were there, 
and of her English passengers who roamed over hi.s 
grounds, and who, he said, thought the prospect from the 
high hill by the shore the most delightsome they had 
