Note 105 — CANTO THE SECOND.[96]
Reading edition
["However, by great exertions of the chain-pumps, we held our own.... All who were not seamen by profession, had been employed in thrumming a sail which was passed under the ship's bottom, and I thought had some effect....
"The Centaur laboured so much, that I could scarce hope she would swim till morning: ... our sufferings for want of water were very great....
"The weather again threatened, and by noon it blew a storm. The ship laboured greatly; the water appeared in the fore and after-hold. I was informed by the carpenter also that the leathers were nearly consumed, and the chains of the pumps, by constant exertion, and friction of the coils, were rendered almost useless....
"At this period the carpenter acquainted me that the well was stove in.... and the chain-pumps displaced and totally useless.... Seeing their efforts useless, many of them [the people] burst into tears, and wept like children....
"I perceived the ship settling by the head."—"Loss of the Centaur," Shipwrecks and Disasters at Sea, 1812, iii. pp. 45-49.]