sprung a leak forward, which her pumps could not keep free, and it appeared impossible to save her from foundering. Mr. Alexander Simmonds, boatswain of the Cygnet, contrived to got alongside in a boat, and returned with information that she was actually going down at her anchor. The boat was sent back with directions to her to slip, and endeavour, by a spring, to cast her head inshore, as the only chance of getting into shallow water, and saving some part of her cargo; but, in a few minutes, the crew hailed again to say she was sinking fast. They then began to loose their top-sails, and the Cygnet’s situation became perilous in the extreme; the Sarah being still nearly in her hawse, and almost water-logged, and a tremendously high sea rolling into the bay, accompanied with a heavy ground swell. The preservation of the little “tenny,” one of a much calumniated class of vessels, now depended entirely on the ability of her crew to heave ahead, and allow the sinking ship to drift past her; – Captain Bennett called his men to the capstan, and in a few short, but impressive words, pointed out their situation, and that their lives depended upon their activity and exertions. – Well did they make use of their powers; for, after slipping the larboard cable, they hove the brig ahead against one of the heaviest gales ever witnessed, and a sea that was almost sufficient to drown such a vessel, without forcing her against it. The Sarah had by this time cut or slipped her cable, and was rolling, an unmanageable log, towards the Cygnet, her gunwales level with the water, and her topsails split to pieces; but by the exertions of the chief-mate, whose coolness, fortitude, and presence of mind, in such extreme danger, are beyond all praise, her fore-lack was hauled on board, and the wind having, at that moment, providentially shifted about two points, her head paid off, and she went past at the distance of not more than half her length. In a few minutes more, she gave a heavy lurch and disappeared. Captain Bennett heard the cries of her crew, and, fortunately for most of them, he had anticipated what would occur; – two light boats, under the command of Mr. Robert Lee Stephens, whom he had sent to attend the Sarah, and with orders to
