After the Mate and the Captain had said they saw the men boarding her, we began to hear sounds from her; very queer at first and rather like a phonograph makes when it"s getting up speed. Then the sounds came properly from her, and we heard them shouting and yelling; and, you know, I don"t know even now just what I really thought. I was all so queer and mixed.
The next thing I remember there was a thick mist round the ship; and then all the noise was shut off, as if it were all the other side of a door. But we could still see her masts and spars and sails above the misty stuff; and both the Captain and the Mate said they could see men aloft; and I thought I could; but the Second Mate wasn"t sure. All the same though, the sails were all loosed in about a minute, it seemed, and the yards mastheaded. We couldn"t see the courses above the mist; but Jessop says they were loosed too and sheeted home along with the upper sails. Then we saw the yards squared and I saw the sails fill bang up with wind; and yet, you know, ours were slatting.
The next thing was the one that hit me more than anything. Her masts took a cant forrard, and then I saw her stem come up out of the mist that was round her. Then, all in an instant, we could hear sounds from the vessel again. And I tell you, the men didn"t seem to be shouting, but screaming. Her stern went higher. It was most extraordinary to look at; and then she went plunk down, head foremost, right bang into the mist-stuff.
It"s all right what Jessop says, and when we saw him swimming (I was the one who spotted him) we got out a boat quicker than a wind-jammer ever got out a boat before, I should think.
The Captain and the Mate and the Second and I are all going to sign this.
(Signed) WILLIAM NAWSTON _Master_.
J.E.G. ADAMS _First Mate_.
ED. BROWN _Second Mate_.
JACK T. EVAN _Third Mate_.