During The Last
Twenty-Four Hours They Had Fortunately Only One Man Wounded; But The
Ship Was Wretchedly Injured Between Wind And Water, And Her Rigging Torn
To Pieces.
At six in the afternoon of the 30th the ship floated, when they cut away
their yawl, having been sunk by a shot.
They hove taught their cable,
and then cut it away, together with the two hawsers, and sent the
pinnace a-head to tow the ship off. Just as the ship got afloat, the
enemy fired with great briskness from their new battery, their shot
raking through the Success between wind and water, killed one of her
men, and wounded two others.
The Success had now remained fifty hours as a fair mark for the enemy to
fire at, during which they lost both their bower-anchors and cables,
with the stern and kedge-anchors, four hawsers, four lower-deck guns,
nineteen barrels of powder, two men killed and six wounded; and had they
not now got off, it was believed they must have been sunk before
morning. At ten in the forenoon of the 31st they hove to, and began to
splice their rigging, not a rope of which had escaped the shot of the
enemy. The masts and yards were all sore wounded; and the carpenters had
to work during the whole night, stopping-the shot-holes in the hull.
They stowed away most of their guns in the hold, barred up the ports,
hoisted in the launch and pinnace, and at noon steered away west under
an easy sail, hoping to save their passage before the western monsoon
set in; the carpenters being fully occupied in fishing the masts and
yards, and the rest of the crew in mending the rigging.
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