72 THE SEA. 



It is highly to the credit of the officers, more especially to those who had deck- 

 cabins, from which it would be easy to remove many portable articles, and even trunks and 

 boxes, that they entirely devoted their time and energies to saving life. They left the 

 ship simply with the clothes they stood in, and were the last to leave it, except, of 

 course, where subordinate officers were detailed to look after portions of the troops. Captain 

 Cobb, in his resolution to be the last to leave the ship, tried all he could to urge the few 

 .remaining persons on board to drop on the ropes and save themselves. But finding all 



FALMOUTH HARBOUR. 



his entreaties fruitless, and hearing the guns successively explode in the hold, into which 

 they had fallen, he at length, after doing all in his power to save them, got himself 

 into the boat by "laying hold of the topping-lift, or rope that connects the driver-boom 

 with the mizen-top, thereby getting over the heads of the infatuated men who occupied 

 the boom, unable to go either backward or forward, and ultimately dropping himself into 

 the water." One of the boats persevered in keeping its station under the Kent's stern, until 

 the flames were bursting out of the cabin windows. The larger part of the poor wretches 

 left on board were saved : when the vessel exploded, they sought shelter in the chains, where 

 they stood till the masts fell overboard, to which they then clung for some hours. Ultimately, 

 they were rescued by Captain Bibbey, of the Caroline, a vessel bound from Egypt to Liverpool, 



