It was night indeed; but the weather was fair, and the moon shone very bright; the sails were up; the course they steered was north-east by north, and the sea appeared as far as they could behold it covered with a white froth.

The captain called up the master and charged him with the loss of the ship, who excused himself by saying he had taken all the care he could; and that having discerned this froth at a distance, he asked the steersman what he thought of it, who told him that the sea appeared white by its reflecting the rays of the moon.

The captain then asked him what was to be done, and in what part of the world he thought they were.

The master replied, that God only knew that; and that the ship was fast on a bank hitherto undiscovered.
Upon this they began to throw the lead, and found that they had forty- eight feet of water before, and much less behind the vessel.

The crew immediately agreed to throw their cannon overboard, in hopes that when the ship was lightened she might be brought to float again.