The brew consisted of the following persons :
Stephen Dolbie, mate,
Thomas Williams,
Martin Clarke,
Unis Newsham,
Nicholas (a Swede),
John Stephens,
John Matthews, f
James Davison,
Robert Adams,
shipped at New York.
The vessel arrived in twenty-six days at Gibraltar, where
the cargo was discharged. Here she was joined by Unis
Nelson, another sailor: she lay at Gibraltar about a month,
and after taking in sand ballast, 68 pipes of wine, some
blue nankeens, and old iron, proceeded on her voyage, the
Captain stating that he was bound to the Isle of May, for
salt, but afterwards it appeared that he was going on a
trading voyage down the coast, (l) When they had been
at sea about three weeks, Adams heard two of the crew,
Newsham and Matthews, who were old sailors, and had
been on the coast before, speaking to the mate, stating their
opinion that the Captain did not know where he was steering
: the ship’s course was then south south-west: they said
he ought to ha ve steered to the northward of west.* They
had to beat against contrary winds for eight or nine days
afterwards; and on the 11th of October, about 3 o’clock in
the morning, they heard breakers; when Matthews, the
man at the helm, told the mate who was keeping watch,
that he was sure they were near the shore; to which the
mate replied, that “ he had better mind the helm, or his
wages would be stopped.” An hour afterwards the vessel
struck, but there was so much fog that the shore could not
be seen. The boat was immediately hoisted out, and the
mate and three seamen got into it, but it instantly swamped.
The four persons who were in it, swam, or were cast ashore
by the surf: soon after a sea washed off four or five more
of the crew, including Adams g but as all of the ship’s company
could swim, except Nicholas, and the mate, they
reached the shore without much difficulty ; the latter two
were nearly exhausted, but no lives were lost. When morning
came, it appeared that the ship had struck on a reef of
rocks that extended about three quarters of a mile into the
sea, and were more than twelve feet above the surface at
low water. The place, according to the Captain’s reckoning,
was about four hundred miles to the northward of Senegal.
These courses, whether from the fault of Adams’s memory, or of the judgment
of the ee old sailors,” hardly seem to warrant the consequences here ascribed
to them.