175 



Remarks on the Marine Barometer, [AptiiL 



apparently hopeless; it was, however, eventually ^ot under by an 

 extraordinary display of skill on the part of an individual, barked 

 by the exertions of the crew. 1 have been in a storm off the Cape, 

 whtn, after a sudden shift of wind, the commodore of the fleet, in 

 one of the strongest ships ever built, on her first voyage to sea, 

 crowded with passengers from Calcutta, suddenly disappeared, and 

 was never seen or heard of more ; the natural inference was, that 

 she had i^one down stern foremost, and that every soul on board 

 had perished. I have experienced the shock of an earthquake at 

 sea, several hundred miles from any land, and consequently beyond 

 the reach of any soundine:s: the fact having subsequently been 

 proved bv accounts from Manilla, the nearest land, where an earth- 

 quake on the same day, and ne^u'ly at the same moment, had 

 occasioned considerable devvistation. So violent was the shock wc 

 experik-nced, that one of the ships of the fl et leaked considerably 

 in consequence. It is the only instance of the kind I ever heard of 

 at such d distance from land; I should like, therefore, to sec this 

 extraordinary phenomena philosophically accounted for. The water 

 was not unusually ai;itated, the wind was moderate, the sky serene, 

 and no one indication of su(h an event throughout the horizon. Was 

 it, allow me to ask, the effect of electririty ? If so, I should wish 

 to be informed how tlie electric fluid came in contact with the ship, 

 for, if the sea became its only conductor, for as the fleet was spread 

 over several miles of space, and every shin more or less sustained the 

 shock, the whole of that part of ihe ocean must have been impreg- 

 nated with it. I once landed from a ship in Table Bay, when, 

 within a few hours of my reaching the shore, she parted from her 

 anchors in a sudden north-wester, and became a wreck. My fami- 

 ly were all on board at the time, who, after a night of innnite peril, 

 expecting every moment to be their last, the rudder beaten off, and 

 the ship nearly filled with water, were with difficulty rescued from 

 a watery giave. These and many other distressing scenes of a 

 minor description have I witnessed, but never, in the course of my 

 practice, have I been present at one half so distressing, at least to 

 my own feelings, as the one which I have now moie immediately 

 under consideration. Those which I have just taken a cursory re- 

 view of were, ii is true, in some instances, mfinitely more fatal in 

 their consequences, and in one case, the momentary pang of afflic- 

 tion could not, 1 admit, have been surpassed ; but the scene I have 

 already given an outline of, and am now drawing to a close, was 



