The trade wind continued to favour us without any fluctuation from the end of June till towards the end of July, but on the 26th of July, being then, as we esteemed, about three hundred leagues distant from the Ladrones, we met with a westerly wind, which did not come about again to the eastward in four days’ time.  This was a most dispiriting incident, as it at once damped all our hopes of speedy relief, especially, too, as it was attended with a vexatious accident to the Gloucester, for in one part of those four days the wind flattened to a calm, and the ships rolled very deep, by which means the Gloucester’s forecap split and her topmast came by the board and broke her foreyard directly in the slings.  As she was hereby rendered incapable of making any sail for some time, we were obliged, as soon as a gale sprung up, to take her in tow, and near twenty of the healthiest and ablest of our seaman were taken from the business of our own ship and were employed for eight or ten days together on board the Gloucester in repairing her damages.  But these things, mortifying as we thought them, were but the beginning of our disasters, for scarce had our people finished their business in the Gloucester before we met with a most violent storm in the western board, which obliged us to lie to.  In the beginning of this storm our ship sprung a leak, and let in so much water that all our people, officers included, were employed continually in working the pumps, and the next day we had the vexation to see the Gloucester with her topmast once more by the board, and whilst we were viewing her with great concern for this new distress we saw her main-topmast, which had hitherto served as a jury mainmast, share the same fate.  This completed our misfortunes and rendered them without resource, for we knew the Gloucester’s crew were so few and feeble that without our assistance they could not be relieved, and our sick were now so far increased, and those that remained in health so continually fatigued with the additional duty of our pumps, that it was impossible for us to lend them any aid.  Indeed, we were not as yet fully apprised of the deplorable situation of the Gloucester’s crew, for when the storm abated (which during its continuance prevented all communication with them) the Gloucester bore up under our stern, and Captain Mitchel informed the Commodore that besides the loss of his masts, which was all that had appeared to us, the ship had then no less than seven feet of water in her hold, although his officers and men had been kept constantly at the pump for the last twenty-four hours, and that her crew was greatly reduced, for there remained alive on board her no more than seventy-seven men, eighteen boys, and two prisoners, officers included, and that of this whole number only sixteen men and eleven boys were capable of keeping the deck, and several of these very infirm.

THUS PERISHED H.M.S.  GLOUCESTER.