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[Illustration: ESCAPING FROM THE BURNING SHIP.]
THE LOSS
OF THE
KENT EAST INDIAMAN
IN THE BAY OF BISCAY.
NARRATED IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND
BY
GENERAL SIR DUNCAN MACGREGOR, K.C.B.
_NEW EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS._
THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD;
AND 164, PICCADILLY.
* * * * *
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
The older I grow, and I am now in my 94th year, I am the more convinced
of the special interposition of Divine Providence in the winter
recorded, in the following Tract.
The Author
* * * * *
THE LOSS OF THE KENT EAST INDIAMAN.
MY DEAR E----,
You are aware that the _Kent_, Captain Henry Cobb, a fine new ship of
1,350 tons, bound to Bengal and China, left the Downs on the 19th of
February, with 20 officers, 344 soldiers, 43 women, and 66 children,
belonging to the 31st regiment; with 20 private passengers, and a crew
(including officers) of 148 men--in all, 641 persons on board.
The bustle attendant on a departure for India is calculated to subdue
the force of those deeply painful sensations to which few men can refuse
to yield, in the immediate prospect of a long and distant separation
from the land of their fondest and earliest recollections. With my
gallant shipmates, indeed, whose elasticity of spirits is remarkably
characteristic of the professions to which they belonged, hope appeared
greatly to predominate over sadness. Surrounded as they were by every
circumstance that could render their voyage propitious, and in the ample
enjoyment of every necessary that could contribute either to their
health or their comfort, their hearts seemed to beat high with
contentment and gratitude towards that country which they zealously
served, and whose interests they were cheerfully going forth to defend.
With a fine fresh breeze from the north-east, the stately _Kent_, in
bearing down the Channel, speedily passed many a well-known spot on the
coast dear to our remembrance; and on the evening of the 23rd we took
our last view of happy England, and entered the wide Atlantic, without
the expectation of again seeing land until we reached the shores of
India.
With slight interruptions of bad weather, we continued to make way until
the night of Monday, the 28th, when we were suddenly arrested in lat.
47 deg. 30', long. 10 deg., by a violent gale from the south-west, which
gradually increased during the whole of the following morning.
To those who have never "gone down to the sea in ships, and seen the
wonders of the Lord in the great deep," or even to such as have never
been exposed in a westerly gale to the tremendous swell in the Bay of
Biscay, I am sensible that the most sober description of the magnificent
spectacle of "watery hills in full succession flowing" would appear
sufficiently exaggerated. But it is impossible, I think, for the
inexperienced mariner, however unreflecting he may try to be, to view
the effects of the increasing storm, as he feels his solitary vessel
reeling to and fro under his feet, without involuntarily raising his
thoughts, with a secret confession of helplessness and veneration that
he may never before have experienced, towards that Being whose power,
under ordinary circumstances, we may have disregarded, and whose
incessant goodness we are prone to requite with ingratitude.
The activity of the officers and seamen of the _Kent_ appeared to keep
ample pace with that of the gale. Our larger sails were speedily taken
in or closely reefed; and about ten o'clock on the morning of the 1st of
March, after having struck our top-gallant yards, we were lying to,
under a triple-reefed maintop-sail only, with the deadlights in, and
with the whole watch of soldiers attached to the life lines, that were
run along the deck for this purpose.
The rolling of the ship, which was vastly increased by a dead weight of
some hundred tons of shots and shell that formed a part of its lading,
became so great about half-past eleven or twelve o'clock, that our main
chains were thrown by every lurch considerably under water; and the best
cleated articles of furniture in the cabins and the cuddy were dashed
about with so much noise and violence as to excite the liveliest
apprehensions of individual danger.
It was a little before this period that one of the officers of the ship,
with the well-meant intention of ascertaining that all was fast below,
descended with two of the sailors into the hold, where they carried with
them, for safety, a light in the patent lantern; and seeing that the
lamp burned dimly, the officer took the precaution to hand it up to the
orlop deck to be trimmed. Having afterwards discovered one of the spirit
casks to be adrift, he sent the sailors for some billets of wood to
secure it; but the ship in their absence having made a heavy lurch, the
officer unfortunately dropped the light; and letting go his hold of the
cask in his eagerness to recover the lantern, it suddenly stove, and the
spirits communicating with the lamp, the whole place was instantly in a
blaze.
I know not what steps were then taken. I myself had been engaged during
the greater part of the morning in double-lashing and otherwise securing
the furniture in my cabin, and in occasionally going to the cuddy, where
the marine barometers were suspended, to mark their varying indications
during the gale, in my journal; and it was on one of those occasions,
after having read to Mrs. ----, at her request, the twelfth chapter of
St. Luke, which so beautifully declares and illustrates the minute and
tender providence of God, and so solemnly urges on all the necessity of
continual watchfulness and readiness for the "coming of the Son of man,"
that I received from Captain Spence, the captain of the day, the
alarming information that the ship was on fire in the afterhold. On
hastening to the hatchway, whence smoke was slowly ascending, I found
Captain Cobb and other officers giving orders, which seemed to be
promptly obeyed by the seamen and troops, who used every exertion by
means of the pumps, buckets of water, wet sails, hammocks, &c., to
extinguish the flames.
With a view to excite among the ladies as little alarm as possible, in
conveying this intelligence to Colonel Fearon, the commanding officer of
the troops, I knocked gently at his cabin door, and expressed a wish to
speak with him; but whether my countenance betrayed the state of my
feelings, or the increasing noise and confusion upon deck created
apprehensions amongst them that the storm was assuming a more serious
aspect, I found it difficult to pacify some of the ladies by repeated
assurances that no danger whatever was to be apprehended from the gale.
As long as the devouring element appeared to be confined to the spot
where the fire originated, and which we were assured was surrounded on
all sides by the water casks, we ventured to cherish hopes that it might
be subdued; but no sooner was the light blue vapour that at first arose
succeeded by volumes of thick, dingy smoke--which speedily ascending
through all the four hatchways, rolled over every part of the ship--than
all further concealment became impossible, and almost all hope of
preserving the vessel was abandoned. "The flames have reached the cable
tier," was exclaimed by some individuals, and the strong pitchy smell
that pervaded the deck confirmed the truth of the exclamation.
In these awful circumstances, Captain Cobb, with an ability and decision
that seemed to increase with the imminence of the danger, resorted to
the only alternative now left him, of ordering the lower decks to be
scuttled, the combings of the hatches to be cut, and the lower ports to
be opened, for the free admission of the waves.
These instructions were speedily executed by the united efforts of the
troops and seamen; but not before some of the sick soldiers, one woman,
and several children, unable to gain the upper deck, had perished. On
descending to the gun deck with Colonel Fearon, Captain Bray, and one or
two other officers of the 31st regiment, to assist in opening the ports,
I met, staggering towards the hatchway, in an exhausted and nearly
senseless state, one of the mates, who informed us that he had just
stumbled over the dead bodies of some individuals who must have died
from suffocation, to which it was evident that he himself had almost
fallen a victim. So dense and oppressive was the smoke, that it was with
the utmost difficulty we could remain long enough below to fulfil
Captain Cobb's wishes; which were no sooner accomplished, than the sea
rushed in with extraordinary force, carrying away, in its resistless
progress to the hold, the largest chests, bulk-heads, etc.
Such a sight, under any other conceivable circumstances, was well
calculated to have filled us with horror; but in our natural solicitude
to avoid the more immediate peril of explosion, we endeavoured to cheer
each other, as we stood up to our knees in water, with the faint hope
that by these violent means we might be speedily restored to safety. The
immense quantity of water that was thus introduced into the hold had
indeed the effect, for a time, of checking the fury of the flames; but
the danger of sinking having increased as the risk of explosion was
diminished, the ship became water-logged, and presented other
indications of settling previous to her going down.
Death in two of its most awful forms now encompassed us, and we seemed
left to choose the terrible alternative. But always preferring the more
remote, though equally certain crisis, we tried to shut the ports again,
to close the hatches, and to exclude the external air, in order, if
possible, to prolong our existence, the near and certain termination of
which appeared inevitable.
The scene of horror that now presented itself baffles all description;--
"Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell;
Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave."
The upper deck was covered with between six and seven hundred human
beings, many of whom, from previous sea-sickness, were forced, on the
first alarm, to flee from below almost in a state of nakedness, and were
now running about in quest of husbands, children, or parents. While some
were standing in silent resignation, or in stupid insensibility to their
impending fate, others were yielding themselves up to the most frantic
despair. Some on their knees were earnestly imploring, with significant
gesticulations and in noisy supplications, the mercy of Him whose arm,
they exclaimed, was at length outstretched to smite them; others were to
be seen hastily crossing themselves, and performing the various external
acts required by their peculiar persuasion; while a number of the older
and more stout-hearted soldiers and sailors sullenly took their seats
directly over the magazine; hoping, as they stated, that by means of the
explosion which they every instant expected, a speedier termination
might be put to their sufferings.[1] Several of the soldiers' wives and
children, who had fled for temporary shelter into the after cabins on
the upper decks, were engaged in prayer and in reading the Scriptures
with the ladies; some of whom were enabled, with wonderful
self-possession, to offer to others those spiritual consolations which a
firm and intelligent trust in the Redeemer of the world appeared at this
awful hour to impart to their own breasts. The dignified deportment of
two young ladies,[2] in particular, formed a specimen of natural
strength of mind, finely modified by Christian feeling, that failed not
to attract the notice and admiration of every one who had an opportunity
of witnessing it. On the melancholy announcement being made to them that
all hope must be relinquished, and that death was rapidly and inevitably
approaching, one of the ladies above referred to, calmly sinking down on
her knees, and clasping her hands together, said, "Even so, come, Lord
Jesus," and immediately proposed to read a portion of the Scriptures to
those around her. Her sister with nearly equal composure and
collectedness of mind selected the forty-sixth and other appropriate
Psalms, which were accordingly read, with intervals of prayer, by those
ladies alternately to the assembled females.
One young gentleman, of whose promising talents and piety I dare not now
make further mention, having calmly asked me my opinion respecting the
state of the ship, I told him that I thought we should be prepared to
sleep that night in eternity; and I shall never forget the peculiar
fervour with which he replied, as he pressed my hand in his, "My heart
is filled with the peace of God;" adding, "yet, though I know it is
foolish, I dread exceedingly the last struggle."
Amongst the numerous objects that struck my observation at this period I
was much affected with the appearance and conduct of some of the dear
children, who, quite unconscious, in the cuddy cabins, of the perils
that surrounded them, continued to play as usual with their little toys
in bed, or to put the most innocent and unseasonable questions to those
around them. To some of the older children, who seemed fully alive to
the reality of the danger, I whispered, "Now is the time to put in
practice the instructions you used to receive at the Regimental School,
and to think of that Saviour of whom you have heard so much." They
replied, as the tears ran down their cheeks, "Oh, sir, we are trying to
remember them, and we are praying to God."
The passive condition to which we were all reduced by the total failure
of our most strenuous exertions, while it was well calculated, and
probably designed, to convince us afterwards that our deliverance was
effected, not by our own might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord,
afforded us ample room at the moment for deep and awful reflection,
which, it is to be earnestly wished, may have been improved, as well by
those who were eventually saved as by those who perished.
It has been observed by the author of the Retrospect, that "in the heat
of battle, it is not only possible but easy to forget death, and cease
to think; but in the cool and protracted hours of a shipwreck, where
there is often nothing to engage the mind but the recollection of tried
and unsuccessful labours, and the sight of unavoidable and increasing
harbingers of destruction, it is not easy or possible to forget
ourselves or a future state."
The general applicability of the latter part of this proposition I am
disposed to doubt; for if I were to judge of the feelings of all on
board by those of the number who were heard to express them, I should
apprehend that a large majority of those men, whose previous attention
has never been fairly and fully directed to the great subject of
religion, approach the gates of death, it may be with solemnity, or with
terror, but without any definable or tangible conviction of the fact
that after death cometh the judgment.
Several there were who vowed in loud and piteous cries, that if the Lord
God would spare their lives, they would thenceforward dedicate all their
powers to His service; and not a few were heard to exclaim, in the
bitterness of remorse, that the judgments of the Most High were justly
poured out upon them for their neglected Sabbaths, and their profligate
or profane lives; but the number of those was extremely small who
appeared to dwell either with lively hope or dread on the view of an
opening eternity. And as a further evidence of the truth of this
observation, I may mention that when I afterwards had occasion to mount
the mizen shrouds, I there met with a young man, who had brought me a
letter of introduction from our excellent friend, Dr. G--n, to whom I
felt it my duty, while we were rocking on the mast, quietly to propose
the great question, "What must we do to be saved?" and this young
gentleman has since informed Mr. P. that though he was at that moment
fully persuaded of the certainty of immediate death, yet the subject of
eternity, in any form, had not once flashed upon his mind previous to my
conversation.
While we thus lay in a state of physical inertion, but with all our
mental faculties in rapid and painful activity--with the waves lashing
furiously against the sides of our devoted ship, as if in anger with the
hostile element for not more speedily performing its office of
destruction,--the binnacle, by one of those many lurches which were
driving everything movable from side to side of the vessel, was suddenly
wrenched from its fastenings, and all the apparatus of the compass
dashed to pieces upon the deck; on which one of the young mates,
emphatically regarding it for a moment, cried out with the emotion so
natural to a sailor under such circumstances, "What! is the _Kent's_
compass really gone?" leaving the bystanders to form, from that omen,
their own conclusions. One promising young officer of the troops was
seen thoughtfully removing from his writing-case a lock of hair, which
he composedly deposited in his bosom; and another officer procuring
paper and pens, addressed a short communication to his father, which was
afterwards carefully enclosed in a bottle, in the hope that it might
eventually reach its destination, with the view, as he stated, of
relieving him from the long years of fruitless anxiety and suspense
which our melancholy fate would awaken, and of bearing his humble
testimony, at a moment when his sincerity could scarcely be questioned,
to the faithfulness of that God in whose mercy he trusted, and whose
peace he largely enjoyed in the tremendous prospect of immediate
dissolution.[3] It was at this appalling instant, when "all hope that we
should be saved was then taken away," and when the letter referred to
was about being committed to the waves, that it occurred to Mr. Thomson,
the fourth mate, to send a man to the fore-top, rather with the ardent
wish than the expectation, that some friendly sail might be
discovered on the face of the waters. The sailor, on mounting, threw his
eyes round the horizon for a moment--a moment of unutterable
suspense--and waving his hat exclaimed, "A sail on the lee bow!" The
joyful announcement was received with deep-felt thanksgivings, and with
three cheers, upon deck. Our flags of distress were instantly hoisted,
and our minute guns fired; and we endeavoured to bear down under our
three top-sails and fore-sail upon the stranger, which afterwards proved
to be the _Cambria_,[4] a small brig of 200 tons burden, Captain Cook,
bound to Vera Cruz, having on board twenty or thirty Cornish miners, and
other agents of the Anglo-Mexican Company.
[Illustration: The ship the Kent Indiaman is on fire--Elizabeth Joanna &
myself commit our spirits into the hands of our blessed Redeemer.
His grace enables us to be quite composed in the awful prospect of
entering eternity D MacGregor 1st March 1825----Bay of Biscay]
For ten or fifteen minutes we were left in doubt whether the crew of the
brig perceived our signals, or perceiving them, were either disposed or
able to lend us any assistance. From the violence of the gale, it seems
that the report of our guns was not heard; but the ascending volumes of
smoke from the ship sufficiently announced the dreadful nature of our
distress; and we had the satisfaction, after a short period of dark
suspense, to see the brig hoist British colours, and crowd all sail to
hasten to our relief.
Although it was impossible, and would have been improper, to repress the
rising hopes that were pretty generally diffused amongst us by the
unexpected sight of the _Cambria_, yet I confess, that when I reflected
on the long period our ship had been already burning--on the tremendous
sea that was running--on the extreme smallness of the brig, and the
immense number of human beings to be saved, I could only venture to hope
that a few might be spared; but I durst not for a moment contemplate the
possibility of my own preservation.
[Illustration: SAVED FROM THE WRECK.]
While Captain Cobb, Colonel Fearon, and Major MacGregor of the 31st
regiment, were consulting together, as the brig was approaching us, on
the necessary preparations for getting out the boats, etc., one of the
officers asked Major MacGregor in what order it was intended the
officers should move off; to which the other replied, "Of course in
funeral order;" which injunction was instantly confirmed by Colonel
Fearon, who said, "Most undoubtedly, the juniors first; but see that any
man is cut down who presumes to enter the boats before the means of
escape are presented to the women and children."
To prevent the rush to the boats as they were being lowered, which, from
certain symptoms of impatience manifested both by soldiers and sailors,
there was reason to fear, some of the military officers were stationed
over them with drawn swords. But from the firm determination which these
exhibited, and the great subordination observed, with few exceptions, by
the troops, this proper precaution was afterwards rendered unnecessary.
Arrangements having been made by Captain Cobb for placing in the first
boat, previous to letting it down, all the ladies, and as many of the
soldiers' wives as it could safely contain, they hurriedly wrapped
themselves up in whatever articles of clothing could be found; and I
think about two, or half-past two o'clock, a most mournful procession
advanced from the after cabins to the starboard cuddy port, outside of
which the cutter was suspended. Scarcely a word was uttered--not a
scream was heard--even the infants ceased to cry, as if conscious of the
unspoken and unspeakable anguish that was at that instant rending the
hearts of their parting parents; nor was the silence of voices in any
way broken, except in one or two cases, where the ladies plaintively
entreated permission to be left behind with their husbands. But on being
assured that every moment's delay might occasion the sacrifice of a
human life, they successively suffered themselves to be torn from the
tender embrace, and with that fortitude which never fails to
characterize and adorn their sex on occasions of overwhelming trial,
were placed, without a murmur, in the boat, which was immediately
lowered into a sea so tempestuous as to leave us only to hope against
hope that it should live in it for a single moment. Twice the cry was
heard from those on the chains that the boat was swamping. But He who
enabled the apostle Peter to walk on the face of the deep, and was
graciously attending to the earnest aspirations of those on board, had
decreed its safety.
Although Captain Cobb had used every precaution to diminish the danger
of the boat's descent, by stationing a man with an axe to cut away the
tackle from either extremity, should the slightest difficulty occur in
unhooking it; yet the peril attending the whole operation, which can
only be adequately estimated by nautical men, had very nearly proved
fatal to its numerous inmates.
After one or two unsuccessful attempts to place the little frail bark
fairly upon the surface of the water, the command was at length given to
unhook; the tackle at the stern was, in consequence, immediately
cleared; but the ropes at the bow having got foul, the sailor found it
impossible to obey the order. In vain was the axe applied to the
entangled tackle; the moment was inconceivably critical, as the boat,
which necessarily followed the motion of the ship, was gradually rising
out of the water, and must, in another instant, have been hanging
perpendicularly by the bow, and its helpless passengers launched into
the deep, had not a most providential wave suddenly struck and lifted up
the stern, so as to enable the seamen to disengage the tackle. The boat
being thus dexterously cleared from the ship, was seen after a while
from the poop, battling with the billows,--now raised, in its progress
to the brig, like a speck on their summit, and then disappearing for
several seconds, as if engulfed "in the horrid vale" between them.[5]
The _Cambria_ having prudently lain to at some distance from the _Kent_,
lest she should be involved in her explosion, or exposed to the fire
from her guns, which, being all shotted, afterwards went off as the
flames successively reached them, the men had a considerable way to row;
and the success of this first experiment seeming to be the measure of
our future hopes, the movements of this precious boat--incalculably
precious, without doubt, to the agonized husbands and fathers
immediately connected with it--were watched with intense anxiety by all
on board.
The better to balance the boat in the raging sea through which it had to
pass, and to enable the seamen to ply their oars, the women and children
were stowed promiscuously under the seats, and consequently exposed to
the risk of being drowned by the continual dashing of the spray over
their heads, which so filled the boat during the passages that before
their arrival at the brig the poor females were sitting up to the waist
in water, and their children kept with the greatest difficulty above it.
However, in the course of twenty minutes the little cutter was seen
alongside the ark of refuge; and the first human being that happened to
be admitted, out of the vast assemblage that ultimately found shelter
there, was the infant son of Major MacGregor, a child of only a few
weeks old, who was caught from his mother's arms and lifted into the
brig by Mr. Thomson, the fourth mate of the _Kent_, the officer who had
been ordered to take charge of the ladies' boat.[6]
But the extreme difficulty and danger presented to the women and
children in getting into the _Cambria_ seemed scarcely less imminent
than that which they had previously encountered; for to prevent the boat
from swamping or being stove against the side of the brig, while its
passengers were disembarking, required no ordinary exercise of skill
and perseverance on the part of the sailors, and of self-possession and
effort on that of the females themselves. On coming alongside of the
_Cambria_, Captain Cook very judiciously called first for the children,
who were successively thrown or handed up from the boat. The women were
then urged to avail themselves of every favourable heave of the sea by
springing towards the many friendly arms that were extended from the
vessel to receive them; and, notwithstanding the deplorable
consequence of making a false step under such critical circumstances,
not a single accident occurred to any individual belonging to the first
boat. Indeed, the only one whose life appears to have been placed in
extreme jeopardy alongside was one of the ladies, who, in attempting to
spring from the boat, came short of the hand that was held out to her,
and would certainly have perished, had she not most happily caught hold
at the instant of a rope that happened to be hanging over the
_Cambria's_ side, to which she clung for some moments, until she was
dragged into the vessel.
I have reason to know that the feelings of oppressive delight,
gratitude, and praise experienced by the married officers and soldiers
on being assured of the comparative safety of their wives and children,
so entirely abstracted their minds from their own situation as to render
them for a little while totally insensible either to the storm that beat
upon them, or to the active and gathering volcano that threatened every
instant to explode under their feet.
It being impossible for the boats, after the first trip, to come
alongside the _Kent_, a plan was adopted for lowering the women and
children by ropes from the stern, by tying them two and two together.
But from the heaving of the ship, and the extreme difficulty in dropping
them at the instant the boat was underneath, many of the poor creatures
were unavoidably plunged repeatedly under water; and much as humanity
may rejoice that no woman was eventually lost by this process, yet it
was as impossible to prevent, as it was deplorable to witness, the great
sacrifice thus occasioned of the younger children--the same violent
means which only reduced the parents to a state of exhaustion or
insensibility, having entirely extinguished the vital spark in the
feebler frames of the infants that were fastened to them.
Amid the conflicting feelings and dispositions manifested by the
numerous actors in this melancholy drama, many affecting proofs were
elicited of parental and filial affection, or of disinterested
friendship, that seemed to shed a momentary halo around the gloomy
scene.
Two or three soldiers, to relieve their wives of a part of their
families, sprang into the water with their children, and perished in
their endeavours to save them. One young lady, who had resolutely
refused to quit her father, whose sense of duty kept him at his post,
was near falling a sacrifice to her filial devotion, not having been
picked up by those in the boats until she had sunk five or six times. A
man, who was reduced to the frightful alternative of losing his wife or
his children, hastily decided in favour of his duty to the former. His
wife was accordingly saved, but his four children, alas! were left to
perish. A fine fellow, a soldier, who had neither wife nor child of his
own, but who evinced the greatest solicitude for the safety of those of
others, insisted on having three children lashed to him, with whom he
plunged into the water; not being able to reach the boat, he was again
drawn into the ship with his charge, but not before two of the children
had expired. One man fell down the hatchway into the flames, and another
had his back so completely broken as to have been observed quite doubled
falling overboard. These spectacles of individual loss and suffering
were not confined to the entrance upon the perilous voyage between the
two ships. One man, who fell between the boat and brig, had his head
literally crushed to pieces; and some others were lost in their attempts
to ascend the side of the _Cambria_.
Seeing that the tardy means employed for the escape of the women and
children necessarily consumed a great deal of time that might be partly
devoted to the general preservation, orders were given that along with
the females, each of the boats should also admit a certain portion of
the soldiers, several of whom, in their impatience to take advantage of
this permission, flung themselves overboard, and sank in their
ill-judged and premature efforts for deliverance.
One poor fellow of this number, a very respectable man, had actually
reached the boat, and was raising his hand to lay hold on the gunwale,
when the bow of the boat, by a sudden pitch, struck him on the head,
and he instantly went down. There was a peculiarity attending this man's
case that deserves notice. His wife, to whom he was warmly attached, not
having been of the allotted number of women to accompany the regiment
abroad, resolved in her anxiety to follow her husband, to defeat this
arrangement, and accordingly repaired with the detachment to Gravesend,
where she ingeniously managed, by eluding the vigilance of the sentries,
to get on board, and conceal herself for several days; and although she
was discovered, and sent ashore at Deal, she contrived a second time,
with true feminine perseverance, to get between decks, where she
continued to secrete herself until the morning of the fatal disaster.
While the men were thus bent in various ways on self-preservation, one
of the sailors, who had taken his post with many others over the
magazine, awaiting with great patience the dreaded explosion, at last
cried out, as if in ill-humour that his expectation was likely to be
disappointed, "Well, if she won't blow up, I'll see if I can't get away
from her;" and jumping up, he made his way to the boats, which he
reached in safety.
I ought to state that three of the six boats we originally possessed
were either completely stove or swamped in the course of the day, one of
them with men in it, some of whom were seen floating in the water for a
moment before they disappeared; and it is suspected that one or two of
those who went down must have sunk under the weight of their spoils, the
same individuals having been seen eagerly plundering the cuddy cabins.
As the day was rapidly drawing to a close, and the flames were slowly
but perceptibly extending, Colonel Fearon and Captain Cobb evinced an
increasing anxiety to relieve the remainder of the gallant men under
their charge.
To facilitate this object a rope was suspended from the extremity of the
spanker-boom, along which the men were recommended to proceed, and
thence slide down by the rope into the boats. But as, from the great
swell of the sea, and the constant heaving of the ship, it was
impossible for the boats to preserve their station for a moment, those
who adopted this course incurred so great a risk of swinging for some
time in the air, and of being repeatedly plunged under water, or dashed
against the sides of the boats underneath, that many of the landsmen
continued to throw themselves out of the stern window on the upper deck,
preferring what appeared to me the more precarious chance of reaching
the boats by swimming. Rafts made of spars, hencoops, etc., were also
ordered to be constructed, for the twofold purpose of forming an
intermediate communication with the boats--a purpose, by the bye, which
they very imperfectly answered--and of serving as a last point of
retreat, should the further extension of the flames compel us at once to
desert the vessel. Directions were at the same time given that every man
should tie a rope round his waist, by which he might afterwards attach
himself to the rafts, should he be suddenly forced to take to the water.
While the people were busily occupied in adopting this recommendation, I
was surprised, I had almost said amused, by the singular delicacy of one
of the Irish recruits, who, in searching for a rope in one of the
cabins, called out to me that he could find none except the cordage
belonging to an officer's cot, and wished to know whether there would be
any harm in his appropriating it to his own use.
The gradual removal of the officers was at the same time commenced, and
was marked by a discipline the most rigid, and an intrepidity the most
exemplary; none appearing to be influenced by a vain and ostentatious
bravery, which, in cases of extreme peril, affords rather a presumptive
proof of secret timidity than of fortitude; nor any betraying an unmanly
or unsoldierlike impatience to quit the ship; but, with the becoming
deportment of men neither paralyzed by, nor profanely insensible to, the
accumulating dangers that encompassed them, they progressively departed
in the different boats with their soldiers; those who happened to
proceed first leaving behind them an example of coolness that could not
be unprofitable to those who followed.
But the finest illustration of their conduct was displayed in that of
their chief, whose ability and presence of mind, under the complicated
responsibility and anxiety of a commander, husband, and father, were
eminently calculated, throughout this dismal day, to inspire all others
with composure and fortitude. Never for one moment did Colonel Fearon
seem to forget the authority with which his sovereign had invested him,
nor did any of his officers--as far as my observation went--cease to
remember the relative situations in which they were severally placed.
Even in the gloomiest moments of that dark season, when the dissolution
of every earthly distinction seemed near at hand, the decision and
confidence with which orders were issued on the one hand, and the
promptitude and respect with which they were obeyed on the other,
offered the best proofs of the stability of the well-connected system of
discipline established in the 31st regiment, and the most unquestionable
ground for the high and flattering commendation which his Royal
Highness, the Commander-in-chief, has been pleased to bestow upon it.
I should, however, be guilty of injustice and unkindness if I here
omitted to bear my humble testimony to the manly behaviour of the East
India Company's cadets, and other private passengers on board, who
emulated the best conduct of the officers of the ship and of the troops,
and equally participated with them in all the hardships and exertions of
the day.
As an agreeable proof, too, of the subordination and good feeling that
governed the poor soldiers in the midst of their sufferings, I ought to
state that towards evening, when the melancholy groups who were
passively seated on the poop, exhausted by previous fatigue, anxiety,
and fasting, were beginning to experience the pain of intolerable
thirst, a box of oranges was accidentally discovered by some of the men,
who, with a degree of mingled consideration, respect, and affection,
that could hardly have been expected at such a moment, refused to
partake of the grateful beverage until they had offered a share of it to
their officers.
I regret that the circumstances under which I write do not allow me
sufficient time for recalling to my recollection all the busy thoughts
that engaged my own mind on that eventful day, or the various
conjectures which I ventured to form of what was passing in the minds of
others.
But one idea was forcibly suggested to me,--that instead of being able
to trace amongst my numerous associates that diversity of fortitude
which I should have expected would mark their conduct--forming, as it
were, a descending series, from the decided heroism exhibited by some,
down to the lowest degree of pusillanimity and frenzy discoverable in
others,--I remarked that the mental condition of my fellow-sufferers was
rather divided by a broad but, as it afterwards appeared, not impassable
line; on the one side of which were ranged all whose minds were greatly
elevated by the excitement above their ordinary standard; and on the
other was to be seen the incalculably smaller but more conspicuous
group, whose powers of acting and thinking became absolutely paralyzed,
or were driven into delirium, by the unusual character and pressure of
the danger.
Nor was it uninteresting to observe the curious interchange, at least
externally, of strength and weakness that obtained between those two
discordant parties, during the day. Some whose agitation and timidity
had, in the earlier part of it, rendered them objects of pity or
contempt, afterwards rose, by some great internal effort, into positive
distinction for the opposite qualities; while others, remarkable at
first for calmness and courage, suddenly giving way, without any fresh
cause of despair, seemed afterwards to cast their minds as they did
their bodies, prostrate before the danger.
It would not, perhaps, be difficult to account for these apparent
anomalies; but I shall content myself with simply stating the facts,
adding to them one of a similar description that sensibly affected my
own mind.
Some of the soldiers near me having casually remarked that the sun was
setting, I looked round, and never can I forget the intensity with which
I regarded his declining rays. I had previously felt deeply impressed
with the conviction that that night the ocean was to be my bed; and had,
I imagined, sufficiently realized to my mind, both the last struggles
and the consequences of death. But as I continued solemnly watching the
departing beams of the sun, the thought that that was really the very
last I should ever behold, gradually expanded into reflections the most
tremendous in their import. It was not, I am persuaded, either the
retrospect of a past life, or the direct fear of death or of judgment,
that occupied my mind at the period I allude to; but a broad,
illimitable view of eternity itself, altogether abstracted from the
misery or felicity that flows through it--a sort of painless,
pleasureless, sleepless eternity. I know not whither the overwhelming
thought would have hurried me, had I not speedily seized, as with the
grasp of death, on some of those sweet promises of the gospel which give
to an immortal existence its only charms; and that naturally enough led
back my thoughts, by means of the brilliant object before me, to the
contemplation of that blessed city, "which hath no need of the sun,
neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."
I have been the more particular in recording my precise feelings at the
period in question, because they tend to confirm an opinion which I have
long entertained--in common, I believe, with others,--that we very
rarely realize even those objects that seem, in our every-day
speculations, to be the most interesting to our hearts. We are so much
in the habit of uttering the awful words 'Almighty,' 'heaven,' 'hell,'
'eternity,' 'divine justice,' 'holiness,' etc., without attaching to
them, in all their magnitude, the ideas of which such words are the
symbols, that we become overwhelmed with much of the astonishment that
accompanies a new and alarming discovery if, at any time, the ideas
themselves are suddenly and forcibly impressed upon us; and it is,
probably, this vagueness of conception, experienced even by those whose
minds are not altogether unexercised on the subject of religion, that
enables others, devoid of all reflection whatever, to stand on the very
brink of that precipice which divides the world of time from the regions
of eternity, not only with apparent, but frequently, I am persuaded,
with real tranquillity. How much it is to be lamented that we do not
keep in mind a truth which no one can pretend to dispute, that our
indifference or blindness to danger, whether it be temporal or eternal,
cannot possibly remove or diminish the extent of that danger.
Some time after the shades of night had enveloped us, I descended to the
cuddy, in quest of a blanket to shelter me from the increasing cold; and
the scene of desolation that there presented itself was melancholy in
the extreme. The place which, only a few short hours before, had been
the seat of kindly intercourse and of social gaiety, was now entirely
deserted, save by a few miserable wretches, who were either stretched in
irrecoverable intoxication on the floor, or prowling about, like beasts
of prey, in search of plunder. The sofas, drawers, and other articles
of furniture, the due arrangement of which had cost so much thought and
pains, were now broken into a thousand pieces, and scattered in
confusion around me. Some of the geese and other poultry, escaped from
their confinement, were cackling in the cuddy; while a solitary pig,
wandering from its sty in the forecastle, was ranging at large in
undisturbed possession of the Brussels carpet that covered one of the
cabins. Glad to retire from a scene so cheerless and affecting, and
rendered more dismal by the smoke which was oozing up from below, I
returned to the poop, where I again found, amongst the few officers that
remained, Capt. Cobb, Colonel Fearon, Lieuts. Ruxton, Booth, and Evans,
superintending, with unabated zeal, the removal of the rapidly
diminishing sufferers, as the boats successively arrived to carry them
off.
The alarm and impatience of the people increased in a high ratio as the
night advanced; and our fears, amid the surrounding darkness, were fed
as much by the groundless or exaggerated reports of the timid as by the
real and evident approach of the fatal crisis itself. With a view to
ensure a greater probability of being discovered by those in the boats,
some of the more collected and hardy soldiers (for I think almost all
the sailors had already effected their escape) took the precaution to
tie towels and such like articles round their heads, previously to their
committing themselves to the water.
As the boats were nearly three-quarters of an hour absent between each
trip--which period was necessarily spent by those in the wreck in a
state of fearful inactivity--abundant opportunity was afforded for
collecting the sentiments of many of the unhappy men around me; some of
whom, after remaining perhaps for a while in silent abstraction, would
suddenly burst forth, as if awakened from some terrible dream to a still
more frightful reality, into a long train of loud and desponding
lamentation, that gradually subsided into its former stillness.
It was during those trying intervals of rest that religious instruction
and consolation appeared to be the most required and the most
acceptable. Some there were who endeavoured to dispense it agreeably to
the visible wants and feelings of the earnest hearers. On one of those
occasions, especially, the officer to whom I have already alluded was
entreated to pray. His prayer was short, but was frequently broken by
the exclamations of assent to some of its confessions, that were wrung
from the afflicted hearts of his auditors.
I know not in what manner, under those circumstances, spiritual hope or
comfort could have been ministered to my afflicted companions by those
who regard works, either wholly or partly, as the means of propitiating
divine justice, rather than the evidence and fruits of that faith which
pacifies the conscience and purifies the heart. But in some few cases,
at least, where the individuals deplored the want of time for repentance
and good works, I well remember that no arguments tended to soothe their
troubled minds but those which went directly to assure them of the
freeness and fulness of that grace which is not refused, even in the
eleventh hour, to the very chief of sinners. And if any of those to whom
I now allude have been spared to read this record of their feelings in
the prospect of death, it will be well for them to keep solemnly in mind
the vows they then took upon them, and to seek to improve that season of
probation which they so earnestly besought, and which has been so
mercifully extended to them,--by humbly and incessantly applying for
accessions of that faith which they are sensible removed the terrors of
their awakened consciences, and can alone enable them henceforward to
live in a sober, righteous, and godly manner, and thereby give the only
unquestionable proof of their love to God, and their interest in the
great salvation of His Son Jesus Christ.
If, on reading this imperfect narrative,[7] any persons beyond the
immediate circle of my companions in misery (for within it I can safely
declare that there were no indications of ridicule) should affect to
despise, as contemptible or unsoldierlike, the humble devotional
exercises to which I have now referred, I should like to assure them,
that although they were undoubtedly commenced and prosecuted much more
with an eternal than a temporal object in view, yet they also subserved
the important purpose of restoring order and composure amongst a certain
limited class of soldiers, at moments when mere military appeals had
ceased to operate.
I must state that, in general, it was not those most remarkable for
their fortitude who evinced either a precipitancy to depart, or a desire
to remain very long behind--the older and cooler soldiers appearing to
possess too much regard for their officers, as well as for their
individual credit, to take their hasty departure at a very early period
of the day, and too much wisdom and resolution to hesitate to the very
last.