Die digitale Landesbibliothek Oberösterreich

y 
x 
a 
pulled away. The silence remained unbroken for 
an hour. Finally, I hazarded a remark. 
“Did you observe, captain, how suddenly they 
sank? Was not that an exceedingly singular thing? 
I confess that’ I entertained some -feeble hope of 
his final deliverance, when I saw him lash himself 
to the box, and commit himself to the sea.” - 
“They sank as a matter of course,” replied the 
captain, “and that like a shot. They will soon rise 
again; however—but not till the Ss alt 
melts” 
“The salt!” I ejaculated. 
“Tush!” said the captain, pointing to the wife 
and sisters of the deceased. “We must talk of these 
things at some more appropriate time.” = 
We suffered much, and made a narrow escape; 
but fortune befriended us, as well as our mates 
in the longboat. We landed, in fine, more dead 
than alive, after four days of intense distress, 
upon the beach opposite Roanoke Island. We 
remained here a week, were not illtreated by the 
wreckers, and at length obtained a passage to 
New York. 
About a month after the loss of the “Indepen- 
dence,” I happened to meet Captain Hardy in Broad- 
way. Our conversation turned, naturally, upon the 
disaster, and especially upon the sad fate, of poor 
Watt. I. thus learned the following particulars.