or entrance, which he had just before opened, and thus enaabled them to commence their own liberation, in which they were generously assisted, at the imminent risk of his own life, by William Moulter, a boatswain’s mate, who clung to the coamings, and pulled the long bars through the shackles, saying he would set them free, or go to the bottom with them[1].
Scarcely was this effected, when the ship went down, leaving nothing visible below the top-mast cross-trees. The master at arms, and all the centinels, sunk to rise no more. The cries of them, and the other drowning men, were awful in the extreme; and more than half an hour had elapsed before the survivors could be taken up by the boats. Among the former were Mr. Stewart, John Sumner, Richard Skinner, and Henry Hillbrant, the whole of whom perished with their hands still in manacles[2].
On this melancholy occasion, Mr. He wood was the last person but three who escaped from the prison, into which the water had already found its way through the bulk-head scuttles. Jumping overboard, he seized a plank, and was swimming towards a small sandy quay, about three miles distant, when a boat picked him up, and conveyed him thither in a state of nudity. It is worthy of remark, that James Morrison, whose name we have so frequently had occasion to mention, endeavoured to follow his young companion’s example, and, although handcuffed, managed to keep afloat until a boat also came to his assistance.
The survivors being all assembled on a quay, only ninety yards long and sixty wide, it was found that thirty-nine men,
- ↑ The entrance to the prison was through a scuttle in the roof, about eighteen inches square, secured by an iron bolt passed through the coamings. William Moulter was subsequently made a warrant-officer through Captain Heywood’s influence.
- ↑ Mr. Stewart was a native of the Orkneys; and Lieutenant Bligh acknowledges having received so many civilities from his family, when he touched at those islands on his return from the South Seas, with Captain Gore, in 1780, that he would gladly have received him on board the Bounty on that account only, “but independent of this recommendation, he was a seaman, and had always borne a good character.” See “Bounty’s Voyage,” p. 161.
An affecting account of the young female with whom Mr. Stewart cohabited whilst at Otaheite, will be found in the Appendix to “The Duff’s Missionary Voyage,” at p. 346.
