“’At the time the ship was sinking, there was a barrel of tar on the starboard side of her deck, and that had rolled to the larboard, and staved as the ship went down, and when I rose to the top of the water, the tar was floating like fat on the top of a boiler.  I got the tar about my hair and face:  but I struck it away as well as I could, and when my head came above water, I heard the cannon ashore firing for distress.  I looked about me, and at the distance of eight or ten yards from me, I saw the main topsail halyard block above water:  the water was about thirteen fathoms deep, and at that time the tide was coming in.  I swam to the main topsail halyard block, got on it, and sat upon it, and then I rode.  The fore, main, and mizen tops were all above water, as were a part of the bow-sprit, and part of the ensign-staff, with the ensign upon it.

“’In going down, the mainyard of the “Royal George” caught the boom of the rum-lighter, and sunk her; and there is no doubt that this made the “Royal George” more upright in the water, when sunk, than she otherwise would have been, as she did not lie much more on her beam-ends than small vessels often do, when left dry on a bank of mud.

“’When I got on the main topsail halyard block, I saw the admiral’s baker in the shrouds of the mizen-top-mast, and directly after that, the woman, whom I had pulled out of the port-hole, came rolling by:  I said to the baker, who was an Irishman, named Robert Cleary, “Bob, reach out your hand, and catch hold of that woman; that is a woman I pulled out of the port-hole:  I dare say she is not dead.”  He said, “I dare say she is dead enough; it is of no use to catch hold of her.”  I replied, “I dare say she is not dead.”  He caught hold of the woman, and hung her head over one of the ratlines of the mizen shrouds, and there she hung by the chin, which was hitched over the ratlin; but a surf came and knocked her backwards, and away she went rolling over and over.  A captain of a frigate which was lying at Spithead came up in a boat as fast as he could.  I dashed out my left hand in a direction towards the woman as a sign to him.  He saw it, and saw the woman.  His men left off rowing, and they pulled the woman aboard their boat, and laid her on one of the thwarts.  The captain of the frigate called out to me, “My man, I must take care of those who are in more danger than you.”  I said, “I am safely moored, now, sir.”  There was a seaman named Hibbs, hanging by his two hands from the main-stay, and as he hung, the sea washed over him every now and then, as much as a yard deep over his head; and when he saw it coming, he roared out:  however, he was but a fool for that; for if he had kept himself quiet, he would not have wasted his strength, and he would have been able to take the chance of holding on so much the longer.  The captain of the frigate had his boat rowed to the main-stay; but they got the stay over part of the head of the boat, and were in great danger, before they