tress; some of the ships of war had lost their masts, and were otherwise much disabled; many of the convoy had not only suffered similar disasters, but had actually foundered; and the sea was covered with wrecks. Numbers of miserable wretches of both sexes were seen, either lashed or clinging to them; and what rendered their dreadful situation still more piteous, was the impossibility of giving them the smallest assistance; the storm continued to rage, and the sea so rough and agitated, that no boats could be put out to their relief. A few indeed were fortunate enough to be saved by ropes thrown from the ships as they approached them. When the squall came on, the Ramillies 74 had her main-sail set, and in this situation was taken aback. Before the clue-garnets could be manned the main-mast went over the side, carrying with it the mizen-mast, fore-top-mast, and fore-yard. The tiller broke in the rudder head; and in a short time, from the chain pumps being choaked, the water in the hold had increased to six feet. In the course of the day several of the guns and heavy stores were thrown overboard, to ease the ship; but these efforts proved ineffectual; the pumps could not be cleared, and by the 21st the leak had gained so considerably that Rear-Admiral Graves began to despair of saving her. Fortunately the gale abated sufficiently to allow the few merchantmen still in company to take out the crew; which being effected by four o’clock in the afternoon, she was set on fire and soon after blew up.
The melancholy fate, of the Centaur was still more deplorable. The squall had laid her so much on her beam ends, that the water burst through from the hold between decks; she lay motionless, and seemed irrecoverably overset. Her masts falling overboard, she in some degree righted, with the loss of her rudder, and such extreme violence as caused unspeakable mischief and confusion. The guns broke loose, the shot were thrown out of the lockers, and the water that came from the hold swept away every thing between decks, as effectually as the waves had from the upper. The officers, when the ship overset, ran up from their beds naked; neither could they get at a single article of clothes to put on in the morning, nor receive any assistance from those who were upon deck, they themselves having no other but what they had on.
