He there
beheld the pale face of his dead son; it was the last object he ever saw,
"Ay de mi!" he groaned heavily, and dropped his face against the ship's
side--He was dead.
After spending several months in the service already alluded to, we were
ordered on a cruise off the coast of Terra Firma.
Morillo was at this time besieging Carthagena by land, while a Spanish
squadron, under Admiral Enrile, blockaded the place by sea; and it pleased
the officer who commanded the inshore division to conceive, while the old
Torch was quietly beating up along the coast, that we had an intention of
forcing the blockade.
The night before had been gusty and tempestuous--all hands had been called
three times, so that at last, thinking there was no use in going below, I
lay down on the stern sheets of the boat over the stern--an awkward berth
certainly, but a spare tarpaulins had that morning been stretched over the
after part of the boat to dry, and I therefore ensconced myself beneath it.
just before daylight, however, the brig, by a sudden shift of wind, was
taken aback, and fetching stern--way, a sea struck her. How I escaped I
never could tell, but I was pitched right in on deck over the poop, and
much bruised, where I found a sad scene of confusion, with the captain and
several of the officers in their shirts, and the men tumbling up from below
as fast as they could--while, amongst other incidents, one of our
passengers who occupied a small cabin under the poop, having gone to sleep
with the stern port open, the sea had surged in through it with such
violence as to wash him out on deck in his shirt, where he lay sprawling
among the feet of the men.
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