LOSS OF THE "CAPTAIN." f, 



eternity without a moment's warning. She had been in company with the squadron the 

 night before, and, indeed, had been visited by the admiral, for purposes of inspection,, 

 the previous afternoon. The early part of the evening had been fine ; later it had become 

 what sailors call " dirty weather ; " at midnight the wind rose fast, and soon culminated 

 in a furious gale. At 2.15 in the morning of the 7th a heavy bank of clouds passed 

 off, and the stars came out clear and bright, the moon then setting; but no vessel could 

 be discerned where the Captain had been last observed. At daybreak the squadron was 

 all in sight, but scattered. '' Only ten ships instead of eleven could lie discerned, the 

 'Captain' being the missing one." Later, it appeared that seventeen of the men and the 

 gunner had escaped, and landed at Corbucion, north of Cape Finisterre, on the afternoon 

 of the 7th. All the men icho were saved belonged to the starboard watch j or, in other words, 

 none escaped except those on deck duty. Every man below, whether soundly sleeping- 

 after his day's work, or tossing sleeplessly in his berth, thinking of home and friends and 

 present peril, or watching the engines, or feeding the furnaces, went down, without the 

 faintest possibility of escaping his doom. 



Think of this catastrophe, and what it involved ! The families and friends of 

 600 men plunged into mourning, and the scores on scores of wives and children into 

 poverty ! In one street of Portseay, thirty wives were made widows by the occurrence.* 

 The shock of the news killed one poor woman, then in weak health. Nor were the sad 

 effects confined to the cottages of the poor. The noble-hearted captain of the vessel was 

 a son of Field-Marshal Burgoyne; Captain Coles, her inventor; a son of Mr. Childers, 

 the then First Lord of the Admiralty; the younger son of Lord Northbrook ; the third 

 son of Lord Herbert of Lea; and Lord Lewis Gordon, brother of the Marquis of 

 Huntley, were among the victims of that terrible morning. The intelligence arrived 

 during the excitement caused by the defeat and capitulation of Sedan, which, involving, 

 as it did, the deposition of the Emperor and the fate of France, was naturally the great 

 topic of discussion, but for the time it overshadowed even those great events, for it was 

 a national calamity. 



From the statements of survivors we now know that the watch had been, called a 

 few minutes past midnight; and as the men were going on deck to muster, the ship 

 gave a terrible lurch to starboard, soon, however, righting herself on that occasion. 

 Robert Hirst, a seaman, who afterwards gave some valuable testimony, was on the fore- 

 castle. There was a very strong wind, and the ship was then only carrying her three 

 top-sails, double reefs in each, and the foretop-mast stay-sail. The yards were braced 

 sharp up, and the ship had little way upon her.f As the watch was mustered, he heard 

 Captain Burgoyne give the order, " Let go the foretop-sail halyards ! " followed by, " Let 

 go fore and maintop-sail sheets ! " By the time the men got to the top-sail sheets the 

 ship was heeling over to starboard so much that others were being washed off the deck, 



* Portsmouth, Devonport, Plymouth, and some Cornish seaport towns and villages were the chief sufferers. 

 Plymouth had furnished more than one-third of the crew. 



t None of the survivors appeared to know whether the Captain's screw was revolving at the time. Her 

 steam was partially up. Had she steamed, there is every probability that the catastrophe would not have 

 occurred. 



