Part 60

Wh. What reason have you to be of this opinion? Must we not lighten the ship? and can we do it better than to begin with the ordnance?

Bo. It may do well to lighten the ship, but not by throwing overboard the ordnance; for you can but drop them close to the ship's side, and where the water is shallow they will lie up against the side of the ship and fret it, and with the working of the sea make her to spring leaks presently.

Wh. I think thou speakest good reason, and I will try a little longer before it be done.

Bo. My Lord, do not doubt but God will show Himself, and bring you off by His own hand from this danger.

Wh. Hast thou any ground to judge so, or dost thou see any probability of it?

Bo. I confess there is no probability for it; but God hath put it into my heart to tell your Excellence that He will appear our Deliverer when all other hopes and helps fail us, and He will save us by His own power; and let us trust in Him.

Upon this discourse with the honest boatswain, who walked up and down as quite unconcerned, Whitelocke forbade the throwing of the ordnance overboard; and as he was sitting on the deck, Mr. Ingelo, one of his chaplains, came to him, and said that he was glad to see him in so good a temper.

Whitelocke. I bless God, who keeps up my spirit.

Ingelo. My Lord, such composedness, and not being daunted in this distress, is a testimony of God's presence with you.

Wh. I have cause to thank God, whose presence hath been with me in all my dangers, and most in this greatest, which I hope and pray that He would fit us all to submit unto.

Ing. I hope He will; and I am glad to see your sons and others to have so much courage left in so high a danger.

Wh. God hath not suffered me, nor them, nor yourself, to be dejected in this great trial; and it gives me comfort at this time to observe it, nor doth it leave me without some hopes that God hath yet a mercy in store for us.

Ing. There is little hopes of continuance in this life, it is good to prepare ourselves for a better life; and therefore, if you please that the company may be called together into your cabin, it will be good to join in prayer, and recommending our souls to Him that gave them; I believe they are not to remain long in these bodies of clay.

Wh. I hope every one doth this apart, and it is very fit likewise to join together in doing it; therefore I pray send and call the people into my cabin to prayer.

Whilst Mr. Ingelo was gone to call the people together, a mariner came from the head of the ship, running hastily towards Whitelocke, and crying out to him, which caused Whitelocke to suspect that the ship had sprung a leak or was sinking. The mariner called out:--

Mariner. My Lord! my Lord! my Lord!

Whitelocke. What's the matter, mariner?

Mar. She wags! she wags!

Wh. Which way doth she wag?

Mar. To leeward.

Wh. I pray God that be true; and it is the best news that ever I heard in my life.

Mar. My Lord, upon my life the ship did wag; I saw her move.

Wh. Mr. Ingelo, I pray stay awhile before you call the people; it may be God will give us occasion to change the style of our prayers. Fellow-seaman, show me where thou sawest her move.

Mar. My Lord, here, at the head of the frigate, I saw her move, and she moves now,--now she moves! you may see it.

Wh. My old eyes cannot discern it.

Mar. I see it plain, and so do others.

Whilst they were thus speaking and looking, within less than half a quarter of an hour, the ship herself came off from the sand, and miraculously floated on the water. The ship being thus by the wonderful immediate hand of God, again floating on the sea, the mariners would have been hoisting of their sails, but Whitelocke forbade it, and said he would sail no more that night. But as soon as the ship had floated a good way from the bank of sand, he caused them to let fall their anchors, that they might stay till morning, to see where they were, and spend the rest of the night in giving thanks to God for his most eminent, most miraculous deliverance.

Being driven by the wind about a mile from the sand, there they cast anchor, and fell into discourse of the providences and goodness of God to them in this unhoped-for preservation. One observed, that if Whitelocke had not positively overruled the seamen, and made them, contrary to their own opinions, to take down their sails, but that the ship had run with all her sails spread, and with that force had struck into the sand, it had been impossible for her ever to have come off again, but they must all have perished. Another observed, that the ship did strike so upon the bank of sand, that the wind was on that side of her where the bank was highest, and so the strength of the wind lay to drive the ship from the bank towards the deep water.