Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/320

 3o6 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.

recommendatory preface to the nar- rative of his fufferings, from which this account is extratted, and which was publifhed at Philadelphia for the benefit of himfelf and his fami- ly, who were in his abfence reduced to the moft pitiable diftrefs.

As the burning of the Prince George man of <voar. Admiral Broderick' s cwn JJ:?ipf the fate of fome part of the cretv, and the extraordinary efcape of fome particulars^ are moft affecling events ; nve have given them in ivhat appears to us the moji offering manner ; in the I'jords of thofe vjho had them- felves a part in that terrible ca- lamity.

From the Reverend Mr. Sharp, Chaplain.

Glafgoiu, offLtfhonf April 20.

ON Thurfday the 13th inll. at half an hour paft one in the afternoon, word was paffed into the ward room, by the centry, that the fore part of our fhip, the Prince George, was on fire. The lieute- nants ran immediately forward, and myfelfwith many others, went di- xeftly on the quarter-deck, when we found the whole fhip's crew was alarmed. The pumps were handed out, engines and buckets carried forward, and every imme- diate remedy applied. The ad- miral, with the lieutenants on watch, kept the quarter deck, from whence he fent fuch orders as he thought molt expedient for the pre- fervation of the {hip, and the fouls in her. Captain Payton, and the lieutenants, on fearch, found that the fiie broke out firlt in the boat- fwain's Itore-roora, to which place

large quantities of water were ap- plied, but in vain ; for the fmoke was fo very great and hot, that the poor creatures could not get near enough to the flames for their la- bour to have any eft'ecl. On which Captain Payton ordered fcuttles to be made, that the water might be poured in by that means ; but there he was defeated likewife, for only two carpenters could be found, and they had nothing to work with for a long time but a hammer and chiflel each. The lower-gun deck ports were then opened, but the water that flowed in was not fuffi- cient to flop the violence of the flames. He ordered likewife the powder room to be wetted, lelt the l>iip fhould immediately be blown up, and every foul perilh in an in- flant. This had the defired effed, and for feme minutes we had glim- mering hopes. I mention the above particulars, as I was below myfelf, worked with the men as long as I could fland it, went up for air, and returned again inftantly, and con- fequently an eye witnefs, therefore declare them as fafls. The fire foon increafed, and raged violently afc on the larboard fide; and as the deftrudlion of the fhip was new found inevitable, the prefervation of the admiral was firft confulted. Captain Payton came on the quar- ter deck, and ordered the barge to be manned, into which the admiral entered with near forty more; for now there was no difllndion, every man's life was equally precious. The admiral, finding the barge would overfet, flripped himfelf na- ked, and committed himfelf to the mercy of the waves, and after toil- ing an hour he was at length taken up by a merchantman's boat. Cap- tain Payton kept the quarter-deck

an