During this terrific scene the officers
and men behaved with coolness and subordination. It affords me great
pleasure to state, that, after a careful examination of the position and
condition of the ship, I am enabled to report that she has sustained no
irreparable damage to her hull. The sternpost is bent, and some 20 feet
of her keel partially gone; propeller and shaft uninjured. The lower
pintle of the rudder is gone, but no other damage is sustained by it. No
damage is done to her hull more serious than the loss of several sheets
of copper, torn from her starboard bilge and from her keel.
She now lies on the edge of a coral reef, which forms a solid
foundation, on which ways may be laid. She can thus be launched in 10
feet of water at 100 feet from the beach. Gentlemen looking at the ship
from shore declare that the bottom of the bay was visible where there
was before, and is now, 40 fathoms of water.
To extricate the ship from her position I respectfully suggest that
Mr. I. Hanscom be sent down with suitable material for ways, ready for
laying down, and india-rubber camels to buoy her up.
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