;’)
It’s difficult to reconstruct what happened; the only reason the captain would have ordered abandon ship is rough seas, they were down to one pump, alcohol was in the 3.5 foot of water they couldn’t bail, suggesting leaking barrels, and the weather cleared enough to make taking to the sole lifeboat seem like a good idea. His judgment may have been impacted by the presence of his wife and child.
The only alternative is, they were taken off the ship by pirates — but then, why didn’t they take over the ship? In this case, the answer is, they did take it over. By that time they’d put the captain and crew adrift in the lifeboat, tried their best to get the pump working, figured out the cargo wasn’t actually worth either the risk or the effort, and the ship appears to have been close to the point of needing the breaker’s dock by the time it was christened. :’) So, the pirates abandoned it.
For some reason the captain must have thought his situation was more dire than it was. The disassebled pump indicates for some reason it may have failed. Maybe he thought he was taking on more water and leaking alcohol than he actually was and decided to make for land, which was in sight?