Hurrah! a large cotton-ship from Charlestown to
Bordeaux--prize to H.M.S. _Torch_!
She was taken possession of, and proved to be the _Natches_, of four
hundred tons burden, fully loaded with cotton.
By the time we got the crew on board, and the second-lieutenant, with a
prize crew of fifteen men, had taken charge, the weather began to lour
again, nevertheless we took the prize in tow, and continued on our
voyage for the next three days, without anything particular happening.
It was the middle watch, and I was sound asleep, when I was startled by
a violent jerking of my hammock, and a cry "that the brig was amongst
the breakers." I ran on deck in my shirt, where I found all hands, and
a scene of confusion such as I never had witnessed before. The gale
had increased, yet the prize had not been cast off, and the consequence
was, that by some mismanagement or carelessness, the swag of the large
ship had suddenly hove the brig in the wind, and taken the sails aback.
We accordingly fetched stern way, and ran foul of the prize, and there
we were, in a heavy sea, with our stern grinding against the
cotton-ship's high quarter.
The mainboom, by the first rasp that took place after I came on deck,
was broken short off, and nearly twelve feet of it hove right in over
the taffrail; the vessels then closed, and the next rub ground off the
ship's mizzen channel as clean as if it had been sawed away.
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