Johnson, with the old boatswain, and two Dutch seamen, were about the last who were washed from the wreck, they four holding on a piece of plank, from which the two Dutchmen were soon after washed; a huge sea then threw Johnson and the boatswain on shore amongst some pieces of timber, from which Johnson scrambled to a higher shelving rock to avoid the next sea, which he did, but the poor old boatswain, less active, was carried way, and perished. Johnson then climbed to a still higher position, and, being much exhausted, laid down and slept. The next day he saw a steamer (the Grafton) go into the Heads; he made signals to her, but was not seen. During the day he saw another steamer (the Washington) pass, and tried to attract her attention; as, also, that of a schooner running in. Friday night was passed in this state. On Saturday morning he endeavoured to get along the rocks; he could see people on the cliffs above, but could not make himself seen, until a brave lad, (Antonio Wollier, an Icelander,) who had gone down "Jacob's Ladder," and along the rocks, noticed Johnson waving a handkerchief; relief came, and he was soon after hauled up to the top of the cliffs, which are there about 200 feet high.
The noble fellow, Wollier, was then hauled up, and received the hearty manifestations of the thousands there assembled. I opened a subscription, which was suggested by Captain Loring, of H.M. ship Iris, and in a few minutes, about £10 was collected, and handed over to the courageous boy, who, in answer to my compliment when handing him the money, said, in broken English, "He did not go down for the money, but for the feelings of his heart."
Johnson says that a blue light was burned when the ship struck, but it was very dim, and could scarcely be seen; Captain Green must have taken the bluff north end of the Gap for the North Head, for, in ordering the helm to starboard, he must have supposed that to have been his position, and North Head a lee shore; for had the helm been put to port, the ship would have cleared, and run for the entrance to the Heads.
Afterwards, at the "Gap," another brave fellow, whose name I have not yet learned, volunteered to go down to send up some of the mangled corpses, now and then lodging on the rocks beneath us--now a trunk of a female, from the waist upwards--then the legs of a male, the body of an infant, the right arm, shoulder, and head of a female, the bleached arm, and extended hand, with the wash of the receding waters almost as 'twere in life, beckoning for help! then a leg, a thigh, a human head would be hurled along, the sea dashing most furiously, as if in angry derision of our efforts to rescue its prey; one figure, a female, tightly clasping an infant to the breast, both locked in the firm embrace of death, was for a moment seen, then the legs of some trunkless body would leap from the foaming cataract, caused by the receding sea, leaping wildly, with feet seen plainly upward in the air, to the abyss below, to be again and again tossed up to the gaze of the sorrowing throng above.