After some further efforts, the Medusa began to swing sensibly; we redoubled our efforts, she swung intirely and then had her head turned, to the open sea.  She was almost afloat, only her stern touched a little; the work could not be continued, because the anchor was too near, and it would have been hove up.  If a warp had been carried out in the open sea, by continuing to haul upon it, the frigate would have been got wholly afloat that evening.  All the things which had been thrown overboard had lightened her, by twenty or thirty centimetres at the most, her draught of water might certainly have been lessened still more; but it was not done because the Governor of Senegal objected to throwing the barrels of flour into the sea, alledging that the greatest scarcity prevailed in the European factories.  These considerations, however, should not have caused it to be overlooked that we had on board fourteen twenty-four pounders, and that it would have been easy to throw them overboard, and send them even to a considerable distance from the frigate, by means of the yard tackle; besides, the flour barrels might have been carefully fastened together, and when we were once out of danger, it would have been easy for us to remove them.  This plan might have been executed without any fear of doing much damage to the flour, which when it is plunged in the water forms round the inside of the barrel a pretty thick crust, in consequence of the moisture, so that the interior is preserved from injury:  this method was indeed attempted, but it was given up, because the means employed were insufficient.  More care should have been used, and all the difficulties would have been conquered; only half measures were adopted, and in all the manoeuvres great want of decision prevailed.[B2]

If the frigate had been lightened as soon as we struck, perhaps she might have been saved.[18] The weather, however, as we have already said, was almost always unfavourable, and often hindered the operations.

Some persons expected to see the frigate got afloat the next day, and their joy shewed that they were fully persuaded of it:  there were indeed some probabilities, but they were very slight; for the vessel had been merely got out of its bed.  We had hardly succeeded in changing its place to a distance of about two hundred metres, when the sea began to ebb:  the frigate rested on the sand, which obliged us to suspend for ever our last operations.  If it had been possible to hold her this night to two or three cables more in the open sea, still lightening her, perhaps, we repeat it, she might have been placed out of danger.