Extract of a letter from an Officer of Her Majesty's ship Gorgon, dated 23rd June, 1844, North Shore, Montevideo Bay :- For your amusement I shall write a rough account of our plans. The pampara which drove us on shore was the heaviest that has been experienced for twenty-eight years, and the tide, which is always influenced (as you well know) by the wind in this river, is proportionately high. When the weather and tide abated, we were firmly fixed upright on our keel in the sand, to the depth of eight feet fore and aft. Nearly all round the ship was quite dry; about four feet under the stern, the surface of the water came up to the eight feet water mark on our stern-post, and as we drew sixteen feet of water, you will observe that we are now eight feet above, or higher up in the world than we wish to be. The main difficulty in getting her off is, that when the water rises three or four feet, so as to afford a prospect of heaving off, the wind must blow right in, and soon fills up all our excavations round the ship, which have been making for the purpose of freeing her from the sand, the adhesion of which is very great : however, we persist in digging daily, and improve our plans of banking out the sand.

You know the character of originality and ingenuity by which sailors are so distinguished, and our operations here give us full scope for them. We have two or three times dug away the sand from the ship as far under as was safe to go ; we are driving piles on each side, to prevent fresh sand from washing in ; that which we have removed being carried high up the beach, and by measurement it amounts to much more than five thousand tons. Under the bilge on each side we have placed ways of large timbers bolted together. About five yards astern of the ship the sand ends and mud commences, so that should we be enabled to move her about half her own length, all will be safe, although she will not be afloat until hauled out nearly a mile, as the water now is; but mud does not hold a ship's bottom in the sucking and adhesive manner that sand does.

To haul off by, we have two 24-inch cables, attached to anchors of 60 and 74 cwt., and backed by others of 60 and 35 cwt.; one cable is taken to one paddle shaft, and a single whip (the fall being a 17-inch cable), one part secured low down to the stem-post and the other paddle-shaft. This manoeuvre is for the purpose of lifting her stern as well as hauling her on end ; the engines, of course, work these our principal purchases. We have two heavy treble purchases from our starboard bow to anchors sunk in the sand near her starboard quarter, and worked by two capstans and 100 men, the capstans being sunk in the sand. As the ship is not on end to the beach, but nearly at an angle of 45 degrees with it, her starboard being the inshore side, we have anchors and cables laid out on the port quarter, which have purchases on them, and are worked by the ship's capstans. Under the bows we have six or eight powerful screws (such as are used for lifting great weights, pressing wool, cotton, &c.. the largest lifts eighty tons, and the smallest twenty tons), placed so as to lift and force the ship at the same time astern. It would take sheets of paper to describe them all, so you must use your imagination to supply the place of a better description. The ship sits upright on her ways, her masts and bowsprit are out, in fact everything but the engine. We have taken 400 tons out of her, and should all other means fail, her engines must come out ; they weigh 237 tons.

We must then place the ship nearly on her broadside, on a cradle prepared for that purpose, and thus launch her with battened hatches. If our present plans succeed, which there is every reason to expect, we shall get off whenever it blows a good pampara; and as it is now the beginning of the winter here, we shall have plenty of them soon. It will then take us two months to refit for England, and about the same time to get there, If the engines come out you may expect us about three months latter. We have every assistance from the foreign men-of-war; anchors, cables, &c., and 130 men from our own squadron, in all about 320 living on board. We have also a mud machine, clearing away astern of us; which has removed 300 tons of that commodity. The men and officers work very cheerfully; we are frequently at work both night and day, not Sunday excepted. This is Sunday, and they are singing away, pile-driving, mud-heaving, and sand-digging, as happy as possible. The weather is often cold, but serene. General Oribe has been most kind and attentive to us, the ship being ashore in that part of the bay which is in his possession."

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