Note 1 — RYDE
Reading edition
The poet adds a footnote of facts. “The ship, when first she filled, fell over so as to dip the flag at her masthead into the sea. Then rolling back, she fell over to the other side till her yard-arms touched the water. She then righted, and sunk nearly upright. While she was sinking, nearly every soul on board came on deck; and I was told by Admiral Sotheby, then a lieutenant on board the next ship, that as she went down, this mass of people gave a cry so lamentable, that it was still ringing in his ears. It was supposed that at the time of the accident, above a thousand persons, men and women, were on board; not four hundred were saved. The eddy made by the sinking ship was so great that a large victualling barge which lay alongside was drawn in, and lost with her.”