296 
AT SEA. 
who know his character, was the last to quit the 
vessel. Just at this time the wind, which had 
blown fresh, suddenly fell, and we were compelled 
by the succeeding calm to be the near and melan¬ 
choly spectators of the destruction of a ship of 
five hundred tons burthen, with all her sails set, 
and a cargo principally consisting of oil and tal¬ 
low, the whole worth not less than ^25,000. 
The flames first seized the sails and rigging of 
the foremast, which being soon destroyed, they 
communicated to those of the main and mizen 
masts, enveloping the whole in one general con¬ 
flagration. Shortly afterwards they subsided, 
leaving the naked masts here and there on fire; 
but when the tallow and oil boiled over and ran in 
wide cataracts of fire down the sides of the ves¬ 
sel, blazing over every part of the hull, the scene 
was awful beyond description. The clouds of 
smoke, greater by far than those of steam from 
the largest eruption of the Geyser, rose to an 
almost inconceivable height in one steady co¬ 
lumn, which was only at intervals disturbed by 
the discharge of one or other of the guns, or by 
the falling of the masts. It was not long before 
the timbers of the vessel were destroyed, but the 
copper bottom continued floating about, like a 
great cauldron filled with every thing that was 
combustible in a liquid and blazing state, till 
