Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v4p1.djvu/275

 gale, the violence of the waves must there be truly awful. Such it was on the 19th May. The waves in the cove rose half way up the overhauling cliffs, to a height of nearly 100 feet, and caused much anxiety in the minds of Commander Dickinson and his party, for the safety of the derrick. This object of their solicitude, the completion of which had cost so many days of laborious exertion, betrayed its inability to withstand much longer the repeated shocks of the waves, and in the course of the morning the contents of the stage were washed away. At 10 a tremendous wave broke the derrick in two pieces, about twenty feet from the step: soon afterwards it separated into five different fragments; and thus perished this enormous machine, with the assistance of which not more than 50,000 dollars had been saved.

“Discouraging as this misfortune must have been, the first concern, as a matter of course, was to repair it; and the former plan, of stretching a cable across the cove, from the summits of the opposite cliffs, was determined on. While the preparations for this substitute for the derrick were going forward, the Brazilian boat, being ready to work the small bell, was taken to the cove, and search was made for the air-pump, which had been washed off the stage. In the course of this search, an accident happened to the hose of the small bell, which obliged George Dewar again to make his escape from beneath it, and to swim to the surface, by which he received considerable injury from the rocks, and was taken up in a very exhausted condition. The air-pump and the large diving-bell were recovered on the following day; but the latter had received so much injury that it could not be used, and another was directed to be prepared in its stead, while the small bell continued at work with some success.

“Another reverse of fortune happened on the 30th May, by a sudden change in the weather, which, during the morning, had been fine, and had allowed of the bell being worked. This no sooner took place, than the operations were stopped, and the boats were compelled to make their way put of the cove without loss of time. The boat containing the small bell was taken in tow by the others; but such was the violence of the wind and waves, that having gained the outside of the cove with great toil and difficulty, to proceed further was found to be impossible. In this dilemma, prompt measures were required. Commander Dickinson, therefore, directed the boat to be taken back to the cove, and anchored without loss of time: this being done, the bell was to be lowered into the water, and the boat’s crew to be landed in the safest part of the cove. Apprehensive of losing the air-pump. Commander Dickinson took it into his own boat, and immediately made for the harbour. It was not without the greatest difficulty he succeeded in reaching it, – the small dimensions of the boat, and the additional weight of the air-pump, rendering her unequal to encounter the boisterous sea. Every person in her, with the exception of two who continued rowing, were constantly employed in baling out the water, and when they at length gained the harbour, the whole were nearly exhausted.

