54 THE SEA. 



And while the present writer would be sorry to prevent any healthy, capable, adventurous 

 boy from entering a noble profession, he recommends him to first study the literature 

 of the sea to the best and fullest of his ability. Our succeeding chapter will exhibit 

 some of the special perils which surround the sailor's life, whilst it will exemplify to some 

 extent the qualities specially required and expected from him. 



CHAPTER IV. 



PERILS OF THE SAILOR'S LIFE. 



The Loss of the Captain Six Hundred Souls swept into Eternity without a Warning The Mansion and the Cottage alike 

 Sufferers Causes of the Disaster Horrors of the Scene Noble Captain Burgoyne Narratives of Survivors An 

 almost Incredible Feat Loss of the Royal George A. great Disaster caused by a Trifle Nine Hundred Lost A 

 Child saved by a Sheep The Portholes Upright An involuntary Bath of Tar Rafts of Corpses The Vessel Blown 

 up in 1839-40 The Loss of the Vanguard Half a Million sunk in Fifty Minutes Admirable Discipline on Board 

 All Saved The Court Martial. 



ENGLAND, and indeed all Europe, long prior to 1870 had been busily constructing ironclads, 

 and the daily journals teemed with descriptions of new forms and varieties of ships, armour, 

 and armament, as well as of new and enormous guns, which, rightly directed, might sink 

 them to the bottom. Among the more curious of the ironclads of that period, and the 

 construction of which had led to any quantity of discussion, sometimes of a very angry 

 kind, was the turret-ship practically the sea-going "monitor" Captain, which Captain 

 Cowper Phipps Coles had at length been permitted to construct. Coles, who was an 

 enthusiast of great scientific attainments, as well as a practical seaman, which too many 

 of our experimentalists in this direction have not been, had distinguished himself in 

 the Crimea, and had later made many improvements in rendering vessels shot-proof. His 

 revolving turrets are, however, the inventions with which his name are more intimately 

 connected, although he had much to do with the general construction of the Ccyitaiu, 

 and other ironclads of the period. 



The Captain was a large double-screw armour-plated vessel, of 4,272 tons. Her armour 

 in the most exposed parts was eight inches in thickness, ranging elsewhere downwards 

 from seven to as low as three inches. She had two revolving turrets, the strongest and 

 heaviest yet built, and carried six powerful guns. Among the peculiarities of her 

 construction were, that she had only nine feet of "free-board" i.e., that was the height 

 of her sides out of water. The forecastle and after-part of the vessel were raised above 

 this, and they were connected with a light hurricane-deck. This, as we shall see, playe 

 an important part in the sad disaster we have to relate. 



On the morning of the 8th of September, 1870, English readers, at their breakfast 

 tables, in railway carriages, and everywhere, were startled with the news that the Captain hi 

 foundered, with all hands, in the Bay of Biscay. Six hundred men had been swept int 



