WRECKS ON THE PURBECE COAST. 151 



fears of the passengers, in which their efforts were more than 

 seconded by the cool and thoughtful self-possession of one of that 

 body, Dr. Acland, and in doing what they could by putting up 

 the fore and top sail, to get her off the ground. As, with the 

 effect of the sail, the ship partially swung round, the order was 

 given to go a-head ; but the steam pipe bursting, the engines be- 

 came unavailing. Had it not been so, she might have been forced 

 off the rock in safety, into deep water. On the other hand, she 

 might have already received the fatal injury, and might even 

 have got into deep water, only to sink. 



By the passengers, the time, long as it was, was not as a ge- 

 neral rule shortened by the most natural employment, it might 

 have been thought, they would have found; that of making 

 ready their several bags, portmanteaux, and the like, either for 

 carrying off, or for forwarding in a packed state to their port, 

 when the opportunity should occur. The subsequent inspection 

 of the cabin shewed that very few had thus employed the slow 

 hours ; even the toilette of some was not during this time en- 

 tirely completed. Their time dragged along, (as in the great 

 Shipwreck, when two hundred three score and sixteen lives de- 

 pended, under Providence, on their obedience to the advice of the 

 Jewish prisoner) "in wishing for the day." Nor is a further 

 analogy wanting in the persuasion by the chief of the passengers, 

 that they all, crew and passengers, should take food ; which, in 

 the shape of biscuits and brandy and water, proved a very valu- 

 able precaution against the fatigue and cold which they could 

 not but have to experience. At the suggestion of the same 

 gentleman, guns were fired as a signal, and rockets and blue 

 lights sent up. Their effect was important. They brought off 

 at the earliest moment, (I believe some time after 5, a. m.,) a 

 preventive boat, with Bath, the chief boatman of Bottom, who 

 gave all information as to the time and places where a landing 

 might be effected, thus calming the passengej-s, and giving good 

 reason for their not seeking to leave the ship at a time when it 

 would have been very dangerous to do so. Bath at tliis time 

 reached the steamer, though not without difficulty, without the 

 danger that would have been incurred later on, and he remained 



