268 Notice of Two Earthquakes felt at Sea. 



The first thing ordered was to sound the well— all was 

 right there. The next was to try for soundings, but none 

 were found with more than two hundred fathoms of line. 

 During this the gunner was called on the quarter-deck, and 

 examined as to the powder-magazine, and when any one was 

 last there. He declared that no person whatever had been 

 there that day. The first lieutenant was ordered to go down 

 with the gunner and examine the magazine, and all below, 

 and I was ordered to attend them. We found every thing 

 as it should be. 



In the course of this search, the gunner, who was an old 

 man, swore that he knew what it was, and affirmed it to be 

 an earthquake. This account, added to his being an Irish- 

 man, made us both heartily laugh, although our errand was 

 not of a very laughable nature. 



In making his report to the captain, the lieutenant told 

 him what the gunner said of its being an earthquake, which 

 created another laugh on deck. However, the old gunner 

 was called aft, and directed to explain himself. He said he 

 was on board a merchant-ship lying at anchor in the port at 

 the time of the great earthquake at Lisbon in 1755, and from 

 the effect it had on the vessel, he concluded this to have pro- 

 ceeded from a similar cause. There was no denying the 

 justness of this remark. Yet not an officer on board could 

 be persuaded it was possible, and, from arguing upon it, we 

 deemed it impossible, from the immense body and weight of 

 water, more than two hundred fathoms deep, that any thing 

 afloat on the surface could be so violently and strangely af- 

 fected by the concussion of the earth beneath. 



2. On the 6th of January, the ship Dispatch * experienced 

 the following effects, evidently resulting from an earthquake, 

 and the account is copied from Captain Brown's Journal. 



At five, a. M., having a moderate steady breeze at E. S. E. 

 and cloudy weather, steering at N. N. E., at the rate of five 

 miles and a half per hour, a long swell from the S. E., 

 felt a motion, as if the ship was running over the ground, or 

 some other solid substance ; and, at the time, for the space of 



* Extracted from one of the Asiatic Annual Registers. 



