DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0212
186 LOSS OF THE ABERGAVENNY INDIAMAN.
with all the sail she could Carry for the shore, when Mr.
Baggot, the chief officer of the Earl of Abergavenny,
was discovered close astern of the ship. The sloop im-
mediately lay to for him ; but this noble spirited young
man, although he had a rope in his hand, cpiitted his
hold, and disregarding his own safety, plunged after
Mrs. Blair, whom he perceived floating at some distance.
He succeeded in coming up with her, and sustained her
above water, while he swam towards the sloop ; but just
as he was on the point of reaching it, a terrible swell
came on, and his strength being totally exhausted, he
sunk and never rose. The unfortunate Mrs. Blair sunk
after him, and this generous youth thus perished in vain.
One of the crew, a Yorkshireman, had ascended a to-
lerable height up one of the masts, when his farther
exertions were rendered ineffectual by one of his messmates
who had seized him by the legs. All remonstrances to
induce him to quit his hold being in vain, the principle
of self-preservation overcame that of humanity; the
Yorkshireman took his knife from his pocket, and cut
the fingers of his comrade, who fell and was dashed to
pieces. A singular accident likewise happened to a
serjeant who survived the fatal catastrophe. His wife,
who was with him in the shrouds, in the last struggle for
life, as she was quitting her hold, bit a large piece out
of the arm of her husband. William Ivers, a seaman,
and two other persons, escaped by lashing themselves to a
hen-coop.
Captain Wordsworth, at the moment the ship was
going down, was seen clinging to the ropes. Mr. Gilpin
tne fourth mate used every persuasion to induce him to
endeavour to save his life, but in vain, and he seemed
determined not to survive the loss of his ship. He was
a man of remarkably mild manners, and of a cool and
temperate disposition. Mr. Baggott the first mate pos-
sessed
with all the sail she could Carry for the shore, when Mr.
Baggot, the chief officer of the Earl of Abergavenny,
was discovered close astern of the ship. The sloop im-
mediately lay to for him ; but this noble spirited young
man, although he had a rope in his hand, cpiitted his
hold, and disregarding his own safety, plunged after
Mrs. Blair, whom he perceived floating at some distance.
He succeeded in coming up with her, and sustained her
above water, while he swam towards the sloop ; but just
as he was on the point of reaching it, a terrible swell
came on, and his strength being totally exhausted, he
sunk and never rose. The unfortunate Mrs. Blair sunk
after him, and this generous youth thus perished in vain.
One of the crew, a Yorkshireman, had ascended a to-
lerable height up one of the masts, when his farther
exertions were rendered ineffectual by one of his messmates
who had seized him by the legs. All remonstrances to
induce him to quit his hold being in vain, the principle
of self-preservation overcame that of humanity; the
Yorkshireman took his knife from his pocket, and cut
the fingers of his comrade, who fell and was dashed to
pieces. A singular accident likewise happened to a
serjeant who survived the fatal catastrophe. His wife,
who was with him in the shrouds, in the last struggle for
life, as she was quitting her hold, bit a large piece out
of the arm of her husband. William Ivers, a seaman,
and two other persons, escaped by lashing themselves to a
hen-coop.
Captain Wordsworth, at the moment the ship was
going down, was seen clinging to the ropes. Mr. Gilpin
tne fourth mate used every persuasion to induce him to
endeavour to save his life, but in vain, and he seemed
determined not to survive the loss of his ship. He was
a man of remarkably mild manners, and of a cool and
temperate disposition. Mr. Baggott the first mate pos-
sessed