LOSS OF THE KENT. 21 
rope and perished, had not one in the boat seized him by the 
hair of the head and dragged him into it, almost senseless and 
alarmingly bruised. 
Captain Cobb, in his immovable resolution to be the last, if 
possible, to quit his ship, and in his generous anxiety for the 
preservation of every life entrusted to his charge, refused to 
seek the boat, until he again endeavored to urge onward the 
few still around him, who seemed struck dumb and powerless 
with dismay. But finding all his entreaties Truitless, and hear- 
ing the guns, whose tackle was burst asunder by the advancing 
flames, successively exploding in the hold into which they had 
fallen — this gallant oflicer, after having nobly pursued, for the 
preservation of others, a course of exertion that has been 
rarely equalled either in its duration or difficulty, at last felt 
it right to provide for his own safety, by laying hold on the 
topping lift, or rope that connects the driver-boom with the 
mizen-top, and thereby getting over the heads of the infatuated 
men who occupied the boom, unable to get either backward 
or forward, and ultimately dropping himself into the water. 
The means of escape, however, did not cease to be presented 
to the unfortunate individuals above referred to, long after 
Captain Cobb took his departure, — since one of the boats 
persevered in keeping its station imder the Kent's stern, not 
only after all expostulation and entreaty with those on board 
had failed, but until the flames, bursting forth from the cabin 
windows, rendered it impossible to remain, wdthout inflicting 
the greatest cruelty upon the individuals that manned it. But 
even on the return of the boat in question to the Cambria, 
with the single soldier who availed himself of it, did Captain 
Cobb, with characteristic anxiety and caution, refuse to allow 
it to come along side, until he learned that it was command- 
ed by the spirited young officer, Mr. Thomson, whose inde- 
fatigable exertions during the whole day were to him a suffi- 
cient proof that all had been done that could be done for the 
deliverance of those individuals. But the same beneficent 
Providence which had been so wonderfully exerted for the 
preservation of hundreds, was pleased by a still more striking 
and unquestionable display of power and goodness, to avert 
the fate of a portion of those few, who, we had all too much 
reason to fear, were doomed to destruction. 
It would appear (for the poor men themselves give an ex- 
tremely confused, though I am persuaded not a wilfully false, 
account of themselves) that shortly after the departure of the 
last boat, they were driven by the flames to seek shelter on 
(:;''<{& 
