This new circumstance was indeed a most terrible { 273} accumulation to the other extraordinary distresses of the _Gloucester_, and required if possible the most speedy and vigorous assistance, which Captain Mitchel begged the commodore to afford him. But the debility of our people, and our own immediate preservation, rendered it impracticable for the commodore to comply with his request. All that could be done was to send our boat on board for a more particular account of the ship's condition, as it was soon suspected that the taking her people on board us, and then destroying her, was the only measure that could be prosecuted in the present emergency, both for the security of their lives and of our own.
Our boat soon returned with a representation of the state of the _Gloucester_, and of her several defects, signed by Captain Mitchel and all his officers; whence it appeared that she had sprung a leak by the stern post being loose, and working with every roll of the ship, and by two beams amidships being broken in the orlope, no part of which, as the carpenters reported, could possibly be repaired at sea; that both officers and men had wrought twenty-four hours at the pump without intermission, and were at length so fatigued that they could continue their labour no longer, but had been forced to desist, with seven feet of water in the hold, which covered all their casks, so that they could neither come at fresh water nor provision: that they had no mast standing, except the foremast, the mizen-mast, and the mizen top-mast, nor had they any spare masts to get up in the room of those they had lost: that the ship was, besides, extremely decayed in every part; for her knees and clamps were all become quite loose, and her upper works in general were so crazy that the quarter-deck was ready to drop down: that her crew was greatly reduced, as there remained alive on board her, officers included, no more than seventy-seven men, eighteen boys, and two prisoners, and that of this whole number only sixteen men and eleven boys were capable of keeping the deck, several of these too being very infirm.
The commodore, on the perusal of this melancholy representation, presently ordered them a supply of water and provisions, of which they seemed to be in the most pressing want, and at the same time sent his own carpenter on board them to examine into the truth of every particular; and it being found on the strictest enquiry that the preceding account was in no instance exaggerated, it plainly appeared { 274} there was no possibility of preserving the _Gloucester_ any longer, as her leaks were irreparable, and the united hands on board both ships would not be able to free her, could we have spared the whole of our crew to her relief. What then could be resolved on, when it was the utmost we ourselves could do to manage our own pumps? Indeed there was no room for deliberation; the only step to be taken was the saving the lives of the few that remained on board the _Gloucester_, and the getting out of her as much as we could before she was destroyed. The commodore therefore immediately sent an order to Captain Mitchel to put his people on board the _Centurion_ as expeditiously as he could, now the weather was calm and favourable, and to take out such stores as he could get at whilst the ship could be kept above water. And as our leak required less attention whilst the present easy weather continued, we sent our boats with as many men as we could spare to Captain Mitchel's assistance.