Appendix 259

What is very remarkable, when Captain Nicholls and his party left the Duke William in distress, there was a small jolly-boat on board; and just before she went down, four French men threw her, with two small pad- dles, overboard and swam to her. They got into Fal- mouth soon after Captain Nicholls landed. They were no seamen, nor had ever seen the English coast, so that theirs, like that of the long-boat and cutter, was a most miraculous escape. The Duke William (according to their report) swam till it fell calm, and as she went down her decks blew up. The noise was like the explo- sion of a gun, or a loud clap of thunder. The French- men had but just left her when she was seen no more.

N.B. (1) Abbé Girard writes the Abbé de L’Isle Dieu that the crew of the Duke William and he and four of his parishioners were saved. (F*, Vol. 50’, p. 929.)

(2) According to the Admiralty records, the Violet was supposed to have been lost on December 12, 1758, and the Duke William on December 13. (Admiralty Gen. Misc., Vol. I.)