Her destination was Carthagena, in Spain. She was to be hove down, caulked, and coppered, and there were not half men enough in Mahon to do this work. Commodore Shaw readily assented; so we turned on our boys, and in fact, we performed the greatest portion of the work. For the whole posse, carpenters, caulkers, and sailors, were eertainlv the most miserable trash I had ever seen. And I never before, knew the meaning of the old saying, " as lazy as a Mahon soldier." While heaving the ships down, there were about a hundred of these wretches hold of the capstan bars; and actually they hung on and were dragged round instead of using any exertion to heave at the capstan.
There were about three hundred of them at the arsenal, who were filthy and covered with vermin. The admiral also was a great character. Indeed, his dress looked as though, if it ever was new, the time was so far back as to make it necessary to search the archives of Spain to determine the date. Then he was a very brave man. He wore a string of medals on his right breast, that looked like the bobtail to a kite. But the principal one, somewhat resembling the cover of a tin blacking-box, was for his gallant exploit of running away with his ship at the battle of Trafalgar. While lying here, the Corvette, John Adams, and the Alert store ship came in with provisions and spars for the fleet.
The Ferdinand was repaired and hauled off. We then took her berth at the wharf, repaired our ships, and were soon ready for sea. Unfortunately for us, the small-pox made its appearance on board, which very much reduced our crew. The disease came out in a very singular manner. There was a fellow among the marines who had been for some weeks on the doctor's list, but the doctor could not determine the nature of his complaint.' The man was very filthy, and on close examination it was discovered that he was full of vermin. The first lieutenant ordered him to be taken on shore to a pond of fresh water, and there to be scrubbed and his hair cut off close to the skin.
All this was done. He was brought on board, and complained of a pain in the back, and next morning he was broken out with the small-pox, which went through the ship; and on some it terminated fatally, but soon disappeared, after which our ship was very healthy. Lord Exmouth's fleet, consisting of his flag-ship, the Boyne, 90, and five other ships of the line, had been lying with us several days, and were now ready for sea. The governor of Mahon requested Commodore Shaw to loan seventy-five American seamen to assist in carrying the Ferdinand to Carthagena. pledging himself for their security and safe return to their respective ships, unavoidable accidents excepted. Commodore Shaw, desirous to extend every courtesy to the Spanish government, and considering this request as a case of necessity, let him have the men, also an officer to see that they were well fed and well treated, besides a young Greek, as interpreter.
All being ready for sea, we got under way, stood out of the harbor and then separated. The English fleet were bound to Algiers, our ship (Ontario) to Barcelona, and a cruise, the Ferdinand, to Carthagena, the United States, Commodore Shaw, to Gibraltar. The weather looked unsettled when we got under way and a very heavy sea outside. At night we took a strong levanter which increased in severity until it became a regular hurricane, which lasted six days. We left Mahon on Monday morning and on Tuesday afternoon saw the Ferdinand far off on our lee quarter: her mizzen-mast was gone and her colors were at half-mast. We were 1 vino:- to and had as much as we could do to take care of ourselves, could render her no assistance and saw no more of her after this.
We had on board, as passenger, a Lady Gavino, who had taken passage with us for Barcelona. She was much frightened during the gale, and being a Catholic, made a vow to her patron saint, that if she was spared to put her foot on the land again, she "would go barefooted to the nearest church and return thanks for her preservation. We landed her at Tarragona and afterwards heard that she performed her vow like a good Christian, but took a severe cold which nearly cost her life. We sailed for Carthagena to meet the commodore, who was to call there on his way from Gibraltar to receive his men, and we learned on our arrival at Carthagena that the Ferdinand had foundered at sea, near Bona, on the Barbary coast, that the crew had got safe on shore in their boats, and that on their reaching the shore, the Turks had made them all prisoners and treated them very badly.