State Trials Part 21

HATSELL, BARON--But did you so or no?

DIMSDALE--Yes, my lord, we had some words about it.

JONES--Swear Dr. Coatsworth. (Which was done.) Now, my lord, we call these gentlemen that are doctors of skill, to know their opinions of them that are found floating without water in them, how they came by their death.

DR. COATSWORTH--I have not seen many drowned bodies to make observation upon; but it is my opinion, that every body that is drowned, is suffocated by water pa.s.sing down the windpipe into the lungs upon respiration; and at the same time, the water pressing upon the gullet, there will be a necessity of swallowing a great part of it into the stomach; I have been in danger of being drowned myself, and I was forced to swallow a great quant.i.ty of water. If a person was drowned, and taken out immediately, as soon as the suffocation was effected, I should not wonder if there were but little water in the stomach and guts; but if it lay in the water several hours, it must be very strange if the belly should not be full of water; but I will not say, it is impossible it should be otherwise.

COWPER--I desire to know, whether this gentleman attempted to drown himself, or was in danger of being drowned by accident?

DR. COATSWORTH--It was by accident: I was pa.s.sing up the ship-side, and took hold of a loose rope instead of the entering rope, which failing me, I fell into the water.

COWPER--But you struggled to save yourself from drowning?

DR. COATSWORTH--I did so; I have seen several persons that have been drowned, and they have lain several days, until by fermentation they have been raised; but I never made my observations of any persons that have been drowned above six hours.

JONES--Did you ever hear of any persons that, as soon as they were drowned, had swam above water?

DR. COATSWORTH--I have not known such a case.

COWPER--Did you ever know, Sir, a body that was otherwise killed, to float upon the water?

DR. COATSWORTH--I never made any observation of that.

HATSELL, BARON--Dr. Browne has a learned discourse, in his _Vulgar Errors_, upon this subject, concerning the floating of dead bodies; I do not understand it myself, but he hath a whole chapter about it.[46]

_Then Dr. Nailor was sworn._

JONES--We ask you the same question that Dr. Coatsworth was asked, What is your opinion of dead bodies? If a body be drowned, will it have water in it or no?

DR. NAILOR--My lord, I am of opinion, that it will have a quant.i.ty if it be drowned; but if there be no water in the body, I believe that the person was dead before it was put into the water.

COWPER--I would ask the doctor one question, my lord, Whether he was not a constant voter against the interest of our family in this corporation?

DR. NAILOR--I never did come to give a vote but sir William Cowper, or his son, opposed me, and said I had no right to vote.

COWPER--I would have asked the same question of the Dimsdales, if I had remembered it; they are of another party, as this gentleman is.

HATSELL, BARON--It is not at all material, as they are witnesses. Then call Mr. Babington. (Who was sworn.)

JONES--Pray, what is your opinion of this matter?

BABINGTON--I am of opinion, that all bodies that go into the water alive and are drowned, have water in them, and sink as soon as they are drowned, and do not rise so soon as this gentlewoman did.

COWPER--Pray, what is your profession, Sir?

BABINGTON--I am a surgeon.

COWPER--Because Mr. Jones called you doctor.

HATSELL, BARON--Did you ever see any drowned bodies?

BABINGTON--Yes, my lord, once I had a gentlewoman a patient that was half an hour under water, and she lived several hours after, and in all that time she discharged a great quant.i.ty of water; I never heard of any that went alive into the water, and were drowned, that floated so soon as this gentlewoman did; I have heard so from physicians.

HATSELL, BARON--I have heard so too, and that they are forced to tye a bullet to dead bodies thrown into the sea, that they might not rise again.

COWPER--The reason of that is, that they should not rise again, not that they will not sink without it. But I would ask Mr.

Babington, whether the gentlewoman he speaks of went into the water voluntarily, or fell in by accident?

BABINGTON--By accident, but I believe that does not alter the case.

_Dr. Burnet_ was called, and expressed an opinion that if a person jumped into the water or fell in by accident they would swallow and inhale water as long as they were alive, but not afterwards; and that they would sink.

_Dr. Woodhouse_ expressed the same opinion. If a person had swallowed water in drowning, signs of it would be visible some time afterwards.

JONES--Call Edward Clement. (Who was sworn.) Are not you a seaman?

CLEMENT--Yes, Sir.

JONES--How long have you been so?

CLEMENT--Man I have writ myself but six years, but I have used the sea nine or ten years.

JONES--Have you known of any men that have been killed, and thrown into the sea, or who have fallen in and been drowned?

Pray tell us the difference as to their swimming and sinking.

CLEMENT--In the year '89 or '90, in Beachy fight, I saw several thrown overboard during the engagement, but one particularly I took notice of, that was my friend, and killed by my side; I saw him swim for a considerable distance from the ship; and a ship coming under our stern, caused me to lose sight of him, but I saw several dead bodies floating at the same time; likewise in another engagement, where a man had both his legs shot off, and died instantly, they threw over his legs; though they sunk, I saw his body float: likewise I have seen several men who have died natural deaths at sea, they have when they have been dead had a considerable weight of ballast and shot made fast to them, and so were thrown overboard; because we hold it for a general rule, that all men swim if they be dead before they come into the water; and on the contrary, I have seen men when they have been drowned, that they have sunk as soon as the breath was out of their bodies, and I could see no more of them. For instance, a man fell out of the _Cornwall_, and sunk down to rights, and seven days afterwards we weighed anchor, and he was brought up grasping his arm about the cable, and we have observed in several cases, that where men fall overboard, as soon as their breath is out of their bodies they sink downright; and on the contrary, where a dead body is thrown overboard without weight, it will swim.

JONES--You have been in a fight; how do bodies float after a battle?

CLEMENT--Men float with their heads just down, and the small of their back and b.u.t.tocks upwards; I have seen a great number of them, some hundreds in Beachy-head fight, when we engaged the French. I was in the old _Cambridge_ at that time. I saw several (what number I will not be positive, but there were a great number, I cannot guess to a score) that did really swim, and I could see them float for a considerable distance.

JONES--Have you seen a shipwreck?

CLEMENT--Yes; the _Coronation_, in September 1691. I was then belonging to the _Dutchess_, under the command of captain Clement; we looked out and see them taking down their masts; we saw the men walking up and down on the right side, and the ship sink down, and they swam up and down like a shoal of fish one after another; and I see them hover one upon another and see them drop away by scores at a time; and there was an account of about nineteen that saved themselves, some by boats, and others by swimming; but there were no more saved out of the ship's complement, which was between five and six hundred, and the rest I saw sinking downright, some twenty at a time. There was a fisherman brought our captain word, that in laying in of his nets he drew up some men close under the rocks that were drowned belonging to the _Coronation_. We generally throw in bags of ballast with them.

JONES--I suppose all men that are drowned, you sink them with weights?

CLEMENT--Formerly shot was allowed for that purpose; there used to be threescore weight of iron, but now it is a bag of ballast that is made fast to them.

JONES--Then, you take it for a certain rule, that those that are drowned sink, but those that are thrown overboard do not?

CLEMENT--Yes; otherwise why should the government be at that vast charge to allow threescore or fourscore weight of iron to sink every man, but only that their swimming about should not be a discouragement to others?

_Then Richard Gin was sworn._

JONES--You hear the question; pray what do you say to it?