The removing the _Gloucester's_ people on board us, and the getting out such stores as could most easily be come at, gave us full employment for two days. Mr. Anson was extremely desirous to have saved two of her cables and an anchor, but the ship rolled so much, and the men were so excessively fatigued, that they were incapable of effecting it; nay, it was even with the greatest difficulty that the prize-money which the _Gloucester_ had taken in the South Seas was secured and sent on board the _Centurion_. However, the prize goods in the _Gloucester_, which amounted to several thousand pounds in value, and were principally the _Centurion's_ property, were entirely lost; nor could any more provision be got out than five casks of flour, three of which were spoiled by the salt water. Their sick men, amounting to near seventy, were conveyed into the boats with as much care as the circumstances of that time would permit; but three or four of them expired as they were hoisting them into the _Centurion_.
It was the 15th of August, in the evening, before the _Gloucester_ was cleared of everything that was proposed to be removed; and though the hold was now almost full of water, yet, as the carpenters were of opinion that she might still swim for some time, if the calm should continue and the water become smooth, it was resolved she should be burnt, as we knew not how little distant we might be at present from the island of Guam, which was in the possession of our { 275} enemies, to whom the wreck of such a ship would have been no contemptible acquisition. When she was set on fire, Captain Mitchel and his officers left her, and came on board the _Centurion_: and we immediately stood from the wreck, not without some apprehensions (as we had only a light breeze) that if she blew up soon the concussion of the air might damage our rigging; but she fortunately continued burning the whole night, so that though her guns fired successively as the flames reached them, yet it was six in the morning, when we were about four leagues distant, before she blew up. The report she made upon this occasion was but small, although the blast produced an exceeding black pillar of smoke, which shot up into the air to a very considerable height.