got Hibbs on board.  The captain of the frigate then got all the men that were in the different parts of the rigging, including myself and the baker, into his boat, and took us on board the “Victory;” where the doctors recovered the woman, but she was very ill for three or four days.  On board the “Victory,” I saw the body of the carpenter lying on the hearth before the galley fire:  some women were trying to recover him, but he was quite dead.

“’The captain of the “Royal George,” who could not swim, was picked up and saved by one of the seamen.  The lieutenant of the watch, I believe, was drowned.  The number of persons who lost their lives, I cannot state with any degree of accuracy, because of there being so many Jews, women, and other persons on board who did not belong to the ship.  The complement of the ship was nominally 1000 men, but she was not full.  Some were ashore; sixty marines had gone ashore that morning.

“’The Government allowed 5_l._ each to the seamen who were on board, and not drowned, for the loss of their things.  I saw the list, and there were only seventy-five.  A vast number of the best men were in the hold stowing-away the rum-casks:  they must all have perished, and so must many of the men who were slinging the casks in the sloop.  Two of the three brothers belonging to the sloop perished, and the other was saved.  I have no doubt that the men caught hold of each other, forty or fifty together, and drowned one another; those who could not swim catching hold of those who could; and there is also little doubt that as many got into the launch as could cram into her, hoping to save themselves in that way, and went down in her altogether.

“’In a few days after the “Royal George” sunk, bodies would come up thirty or forty nearly at a time.  A body would rise, and come up so suddenly as to frighten any one.  The watermen, there is no doubt, made a good thing of it:  they took from the bodies of the men their buckles, money, and watches, and then made fast a rope to their heels, and towed them to land.’

CHARLES.  “That is all I have copied, as the remaining part of the narrative is too full of nautical terms for us to understand; and, as it only relates to the state of the weather, the condition of the vessel, and the perverseness of the lieutenant, it is of no particular advantage to us in the explanation of the wreck, for we already know the why and wherefore of the disastrous event.  But Mr. Ingram does not precisely state the number of persons lost.  Was it not ascertained soon after?”

MR. WILTON.  “Yes; I believe the number of persons who perished on this sadly memorable occasion was upwards of 800, out of whom 200 were women.”

GEORGE.  “And was the taking out the water-cock the original cause of the sinking of the ’Royal George’?”

MR. WILTON.  “No doubt it was, because, to effect this, the vessel was hove on one side, and while in that situation, a sudden squall threw her broadside into the water, and the lower deck ports not having been lashed down, she filled, and sunk in about three minutes.”