noon
Mr Percival and his gang had been working like demons , and had made great advances toward a general clearance of the wreckage -- so much so , indeed , that he was quite ready for the Carpenter to start work at once ; while , as for the Dutch crew , they had completed their task of carrying below their killed and wounded , and were busily engaged in washing down the main-deck and otherwise obliterating , as far as might be , the evidences of the recent battle . I allowed them to finish this job -- although I knew the skipper to be very anxious to be off in chase of the two Indiamen -- for I had noticed , while crossing over to the prize on the last occasion , that the wind had fined away to a mere zephyr , and that the Indiamen were still hull-up ; while there was every appearance of the weather falling stark calm within the next hour or two . I , therefore , told myself that , taking everything into consideration , there was really no great need for hurry . But I had not to wait very long , for within half-an-hour the Dutchmen had done all that was possible for them to do ; and by noon I had completed my somewhat disagreeable task of transferring all the prisoners to the _ Europa _ , taking with me , on my last trip , the Dutch surgeon 's report upon the losses incurred by the _ Gelderland _ during the action . These , as anticipated by Van Halst , were exceedingly heavy , the killed numbering thirty-two , while the wounded totalled no less than one hundred and thirty-one , of whom at least ten were so desperately hurt that there was little hope of their outlasting the night . By the time that all this was done , Mr Howard had got our new fore-topmast on end and rigged , the topsail-yard aloft and secured , and the topsail , fore-topmast staysail , and jib set , when we at once filled on the ship and hauled our wind in pursuit of the Indiamen , Mr Percival having received orders to follow us as soon as he could make sail . Then we piped to dinner , all hands having spent a most strenuously busy morning .