The Loss Of The Kent, East Indiaman, In The Bay Of Biscay Part 2

The sailors and soldiers, cold, wet, and almost naked, quickly followed; the whole forming, in their haggard looks and the endless variety of their costume, an a.s.semblage at once as melancholy and grotesque as it is possible to conceive. So eager did the people appear to be to pour out upon us the full current of their sympathies, that shoes, hats, and other articles of urgent necessity were presented to several of the officers and men before they had even quitted the point of disembarkation. And in the course of the day, many of the officers and soldiers, and almost all of the females, were partaking, in the private houses of individuals, of the most liberal and needful hospitality.

But this flow of compa.s.sion and kindness did not cease with the impulse of the more immediate occasion that had called it forth. For a meeting of the inhabitants was afterwards held, where subscriptions in clothes and money to a large amount were collected for the relief of the numerous sufferers. The women and children, whose wants seemed to demand their first care, were speedily furnished with comfortable clothing, and the poor widows and orphans with decent mourning. Depositories of s.h.i.+rts, shoes, stockings, etc., were formed for the supply of the officers and private pa.s.sengers; and the sick and wounded in the hospital were made the recipients, not only of all those kindly attentions and medical a.s.sistance that could remove or soothe their temporal suffering, but were also invited to partake freely of the most judicious spiritual consolation and instruction. This march of charity was conducted by the ladies of Falmouth, who were zealously accompanied on it by the whole body, in the vicinity, of that peculiar sect of Christians, who have ever been as remarkable for their una.s.suming pretensions and consistent conduct, as for unostentatiously standing in the front ranks of every good work. And so strong is the reason which I, in particular, have to a.s.sociate in my mind all that is sincere, considerate, and charitable with the society of Friends, that the very badge of Quakerism will, I trust, henceforward prove a full and sufficient pa.s.sport to the best feelings of my heart.

On the first Sunday after our arrival, Colonel Fearon, followed by all his officers and men, and accompanied by Captain Cobb, and the officers and private pa.s.sengers of his late s.h.i.+p, hastened to prostrate themselves before the throne of the Heavenly grace, to pour out the public expression of their thanksgiving to their almighty Preserver. The scene was deeply impressive; and it is earnestly to be hoped that many a poor fellow who listened, perhaps for the first time in his life, with unquestionable sincerity and humility to the voice of instruction, will be found steadily prosecuting, in the strength of G.o.d, the good resolutions that he may on that solemn occasion have formed, until he be able to say, as one of the greatest generals of antiquity did, that "it was good for him to have been afflicted; for before he was afflicted he went astray, but that afterwards he was not ashamed to keep G.o.d's word."

In the course of a few days the private pa.s.sengers and most of the sailors of our party were dispersed in various directions; and the troops, after having incurred to the excellent inhabitants of Falmouth, and the adjacent towns, a debt of grat.i.tude which none of them can ever hope to repay, were embarked for Chatham.

I think you must be already sensible that the circ.u.mstances of our situation on board the _Kent_ did not enable us conscientiously to save a single article, either of public or private property, from the flames; indeed, the only thing I preserved--with the exception of forty or fifty sovereigns, which I hastily tied up in my pocket handkerchief, and put into my wife's hands, at the moment she was lifted into the boat, as a provision for herself and her companions against the temporary want to which they might be exposed on some foreign sh.o.r.e--was the pocket compa.s.s, which you yourself presented to me.[16]

But I would have you to be a.s.sured, that the total abandonment of individual interests on the part of the officers of the s.h.i.+p, and of the 31st regiment, was occasioned by no want of self-possession, nor even, in all cases, of opportunities to attend to them; but to a sincere desire to avoid even the appearance of selfishness, at moments when the valuable lives of their sailors and soldiers were at stake. And this observation applies with still greater force to the senior officers in both services, whose cabins being upon the upper deck were accessible during the whole day; and where many portable articles of value were deposited, which could have been very easily carried off, had those officers been disposed to devote to their own concerns even a portion of that precious time, and of those active exertions, which they unremittingly applied to the performance of their professional duty.

Notwithstanding the unexpected length to which I have already extended this narrative, I cannot allow myself to close it without offering to my late companions on board the _Kent_, into whose hands it may possibly fall, a few very plain and simple observations, which I think worthy of their serious consideration, and the importance of which I desire to have deeply impressed upon my own mind. None of those soldiers who were in the habit of reading their Bibles can have failed to notice that faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of G.o.d, is therein made the great pivot on which the salvation of man hinges; that the whole human race, without distinction of rank, nation, age, or s.e.x, being justly exposed to the wrath of Almighty G.o.d, nothing but the precious blood of Christ, which was shed on the cross, can possibly atone for their sins; and that faith in this atonement can alone pacify the conscience, and awaken confidence towards G.o.d as a reconciled Father. If, therefore, "he that believeth in Christ shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be d.a.m.ned," be the unequivocal language of Jehovah, either expressly declared or obviously implied in every page of that record which He has vouchsafed to us of His Son; is it not a question of the deepest concernment to every one professing any regard for divine revelation, whether he really understands and believes that record, and whether he is able to give, not only to others, but to himself, a reason of this hope that is in him?

From the influence of education or example, the absence of serious reflection, an attention to the outward ordinances of religion, a regard to many of the proprieties and decencies of life, and a forgetfulness that the religion of the Bible is a religion of motives rather than one of observances, minds easily satisfied on such subjects may persuade themselves that they are spiritually alive while they are dead--that they are amongst the sincere disciples of the blessed Redeemer, and fully interested in His salvation, while they may have neither part nor lot in the matter. But if, at the hour of death, when all external support shall slide away, the soul shall be awakened to the consciousness of its real condition; if it should be made to see, on the one hand, the spirituality and exceeding breadth of the divine law, and be quickened, on the other, to a sense of its unnumbered transgressions; if the mercy of G.o.d out of Christ, in which so many vainly and vaguely trust, should become obscured by the inflexible justice and spotless holiness of His character and if the solitary spirit, as it is dragged towards the mysterious precipice, is made to hear, from a voice which it can no longer mistake, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them,"--how unspeakably miserable must be the condition of the man who thus discovers, for the first time, that the sand which he had all his lifetime been mistaking for the "Rock of Ages" is now giving way under his feet, and that his soul must speedily sink into that state in which, "where the tree falleth, there it shall be;" where "he that is unjust, let him be unjust still;" and where there is "no work, nor device, nor knowledge," nor repentance.

But that I may not be misunderstood, or be supposed to favour principles of barren speculation, more delusive and dangerous to their possessors, and to the best interests of society, than absolute ignorance itself--I would remind the gallant men to whom I am now more especially addressing myself, that that faith which saves the soul not only "worketh"

invariably "by love," and gradually "overcometh the world," but that "it is the gift of G.o.d," implanted in the heart by His Holy Spirit, even by that Spirit which is freely given to every one that earnestly asketh.

And however unable the simple soldier may be to explain either the nature or the manner of its operation, he must not deceive himself into the persuasion that he is possessed of this precious grace unless he feels it bringing forth in his life and conversation the abundant fruits that necessarily spring from it, and that cannot indeed be produced without it. He will be steady and zealous in the performance of duty, patient under fatigue and privation, sober amid temptation, calm but firm in the hour of danger, and respectfully obedient to his officers; he will honour his king, be content with his wages, and do harm to no man. His piety will be ardent but sober, his prayers will be earnest and frequent, but rather in secret than before men; he will not be contentious or disputatious, but rather desirous of instructing others by his example than by his precepts; letting his light so s.h.i.+ne before them, in the simplicity of his motives, the uprightness of his actions, in his readiness to oblige, and by the whole tenor of his life, that they, seeing his good works, may be led, by the divine blessing, to acknowledge the reality and power and beauty of religion, and be induced in like manner to glorify his heavenly Father. In short, in comparison with his thoughtless comrades, he must not only aspire to become a better man, but, from the constraining motives of the gospel, struggle to be also in every essential respect a better soldier.

In conclusion, I would observe that if any cla.s.s of men, more than another, ought to be struck with awe and grat.i.tude by the goodness and providence of G.o.d, it is they who go down to the sea in s.h.i.+ps, and see His wonders in the great deep; or if any ought to familiarize their minds with death and its solemn consequences, it is surely soldiers, "whose very business it is to die." May all those then, especially, who thus possessed the privilege, but rarely granted, of being allowed, in the full vigour of health, and in the absence of all the bustle and excitement of battle, to contemplate, from the very brink of eternity, the awful realities that reign within it, as many of their departing comrades were hurried through its dreadful portals, be now led, in the respite which has been given them, to remember that this alone is the accepted time, and this the day of salvation; for while some may defer the subject "to a more convenient season," the message may come forth, at an hour when it is least expected, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee." The foregoing narrative may be fitly supplemented by some particulars[17] of the events occurring after the departure of the _Cambria_ from the scene of the wreck:--

"About twelve o'clock the watch of the barque _Caroline_, on her pa.s.sage from Alexandria to Liverpool, observed a light on the horizon, and knew it at once to be a s.h.i.+p on fire. There was a heavy sea on, but the captain, instantly setting his maintop-gallant-sail, ran down towards the spot. About one, the sky becoming brighter, a sudden jet of vivid light shot up; but they were too distant to hear the explosion. In half-an-hour the _Caroline_ could see the wreck of a large vessel lying head to the wind. The ribs and frame timbers, marking the outlines of double ports and quarter-galleries, showed that the burning skeleton was that of a first-cla.s.s Indiaman. Every other external feature was gone; she was burnt nearly to the water's edge, but still floated, pitching majestically as she rose and fell on the long rolling swell of the bay.

The vessel looked like an immense cage of charred basket-work filled with flame, that here and there blazed brighter at intervals. Above, and far to leeward, there was a vast drifting cloud of curling smoke spangled with millions of sparks and burning flakes, and scattered by the wind over the sky and waves.

"As the _Caroline_ approached, part of a mast and some spars, rising and falling, were observed grinding under the weather-quarter of the wreck, having got entangled with the keel or rudder irons, and thus attaching it to the hull of the vessel. The _Caroline_, coming down swift before the wind, was in a few minutes brought across the bows of the _Kent_. At that moment a shout was heard as if from the very centre of the fire, and the same instant several figures were observed clinging to a mast.

The sea was heavy, and the wreck threatened every moment to disappear.

The _Caroline_ was hove-to to leeward, in order to avoid the showers of flakes and sparks, and to intercept any boats or rafts. The mate and four seamen pushed off in the jolly-boat, through a sea covered with floating spars, chests, and furniture, that threatened to crush or overwhelm the boat. When within a few yards of the stern, they caught sight of the first living thing--a wretched man clinging to a spar close under the s.h.i.+p's counter. Every time the stern-frame rose with the swell he was suspended above the water, and scorched by the long keen tongues of pure flame that now came darting through the gun-room ports.

Each time this torture came the man shrieked with agony; the next moment the surge came and buried him under the wave, and he was silent. The _Caroline's_ men, defying the fire, pulled close to him, but just as their hands were stretching towards him (latterly the poor wretch had been silent), the rope or spar was snapped by the fire, and he sank for ever.

"The men then, carefully backing, carried off six other of the nearest men from the mast. The small boat, only eighteen feet long, would not hold more than eleven persons, and indeed, as it was, was nearly swamped by a heavy wave. In half-an-hour the boat bravely returned, and took off six more.

"The mate, fearing the vessel was going down, and that the masts would be swallowed in the vortex, redoubled his efforts to get a third time to the wreck. While struggling with a head sea, and before the boat could reach the mast, the end came. The fiery ma.s.s settled like a red-hot coal into the waves, and disappeared for ever. The sky grew instantly dark, a dense shroud of black smoke lingered over the grave of the s.h.i.+p, and instead of the crackle of burning timbers and the flutter of flames, there spread the ineffable stillness of death.

"As the last gleam flickered out, Mr. Wallen, the mate of the _Caroline_, with great quickness of thought set the spot by a star.

Then, in spite of the danger in the darkness of floating wreck, he resolved to wait quietly till daylight, and ordered his men to shout repeatedly to cheer any who might be still floating on stray spars. For a long time no one answered; at last a feeble cry came, and the _Caroline's_ sailors returned it loudly and gladly. What joy that faint cry must have brought to those friendly ears! With what joy must the boatmen's shout have been received!

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHEN DAY BROKE THE MAST WAS VISIBLE.]

"When the day broke the mast was visible, and four motionless men could be seen among its cordage and top-work. They seemed dead, but as the boat neared, two of them feebly raised their heads and stretched out their arms. When taken into the boat, they were found to be faint and almost dead from the cold and wet, and the many hours they had been half under water. The other two were stone dead. One had bound himself firmly to the spar, and lay as if asleep, with his arms around it, and his head upon it, as if it had been a pillow. The other stood half upright between the cheeks of the mast, his face fixed in the direction of the boat, his arms still extended. They were both left on the spar.

One of the Indiaman's empty boats was also found drifting a short distance off. The wind beginning to freshen and a gale coming on, it was all the jolly-boat could do to rejoin the _Caroline_. There could be no doubt that when the _Caroline_ hove-to and luffed under the lee of the _Kent_, it must have pa.s.sed men drifting to leeward on detached spars.

They of course all perished in the rising storm.

"A piece of plate was presented to Captain Cook, of the _Cambria_, by the officers and pa.s.sengers of the _Kent_, and the Duke of York publicly thanked him for his humane zeal and prompt.i.tude. The Secretary of War (Lord Palmerston) authorized a sum of five hundred pounds to be given to the captain and crew of the _Cambria_, and the agents of the s.h.i.+p were also paid two hundred and eighty-seven pounds for provisions, two hundred and eighty-seven pounds for pa.s.sengers' diet, and five hundred pounds for demurrage. The East India Company awarded six hundred pounds to Captain Cook, one hundred pounds to the first mate, fifty pounds to the second mate, ten pounds each to the nine men of the crew, fifteen pounds each to the twenty-six miners, and one hundred pounds to the ten chief miners for extra stores, to make their voyage out more comfortable. The Royal Exchange a.s.surance gave Captain Cook fifty pounds, and his officers and crew fifty pounds. The subscribers to Lloyds voted him a present of one hundred pounds; the Royal Humane Society awarded him an honorary medallion; and the underwriters at Liverpool were also prominent in their liberality."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Captain Cobb, with great forethought, ordered the deck to be scuttled forward, with a view to draw the fire in that direction, knowing that between it and the magazine were several tiers of water-casks; while he hoped that the wet sails, etc., thrown into the after-hold, would prevent the fire from communicating with the spirit-room abaft.]

[Footnote 2: The late Lady MacGregor, and the late Mrs. Pringle, of Yair, Whytbank, Selkirk, N.B., who are also mentioned in the letter on page 23.]

[Footnote 3: This bottle, left in the cabin, was cast into the sea by the explosion that destroyed the _Kent_. About nineteen months afterwards the following notice appeared in a Barbadoes (West Indian) newspaper:--

"A bottle was picked up on Sat.u.r.day, the 30th September, at Bathsheba (a bathing-place on the west of Barbadoes), by a gentleman who was bathing there, who, on breaking it, found the melancholy account of the fate of the s.h.i.+p _Kent_, contained in a folded paper written with pencil, but scarcely legible." The words of the letter were then given, and a facsimile of it will be found on the next page. The letter itself, taken from the bottle thickly encrusted with sh.e.l.ls and seaweed, was returned to the writer when he arrived, shortly after its discovery, at Barbadoes, as Lieut.-Colonel of the 93rd Highlanders, and the interesting relic is still preserved by his son (at that time called "little Rob Roy"), who is not mentioned in the letter, but was saved as related in page 33.]

[Footnote 4: Two s.h.i.+pwrights, dismissed from their situation because they would not work on Sunday, were employed by the father of a friend of the writer. He engaged them to build their first vessel, the _Cambria_, and this was her first voyage, starting from Deptford before the _Kent_ sailed from Gravesend.

Captain Cook many years afterwards commanded in the disastrous "Niger Expedition." He was a splendid sailor, and a humble Christian, whose death-bed, long years after, was attended by the youngest pa.s.senger he had helped to save from the burning _Kent_.]

[Footnote 5: I was afterwards informed by one of the pa.s.sengers on board the _Cambria_--for from the great height of the Indiaman we had not the opportunity of making a similar observation--that when both vessels happened to be at the same time in the trough of the sea, the _Kent_ was entirely concealed by the intervening waves from the deck of the _Cambria_.]

[Footnote 6: "The _Rob Roy_ Canoe on the Jordan" (Murray) gives some other experiences of watery dangers in after life.]

[Footnote 7: This narrative has been translated into the French, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, German, and Russian languages, and the author (born March 16, 1787) still enjoys good health (1880) while writing the preface to this edition, of which a _facsimile_ is given at the beginning of the book.]

[Footnote 8: Some of those men who were necessarily left behind, having previously conducted themselves with great propriety and courage, I think it but justice to express my belief that the same difficulties which had nearly proved fatal to Captain Cobb's personal escape were probably found to be insurmountable by landsmen, whose coolness, unaccompanied with dexterity and experience, might not be available to them in their awful situation.]

[Footnote 9: I ought to state that the exertions of Mr. Muir, third mate, were also most conspicuous during the whole day.]

[Footnote 10: See page 83.--One of the men saved after the explosion (which had burned off both his feet) was met thirty years afterwards by the individual who was first saved in the _Cambria_. This man was wheeling himself in a go-cart on the race-ground at Lanark, dressed in sailor's costume, and selling papers with a picture of the _Kent_ upon them and some doggerel verses below. As honorary secretary of the "Open-Air Mission" (which provides preachers for streets in towns, and for races and fairs in the country), the "first saved" from the wreck and burning then preached the Gospel to the "last saved" from the scorched embers, and to a large and motley crowd, all of whom will a.s.suredly meet once more "at that day."]

[Footnote 11: Besides 500 barrels of gunpowder, there was on board several hundredweight of highly explosive percussion powder. The brig was about three miles distant when the _Kent_ exploded.]

[Footnote 12: Captain Cook afterwards rendered distinguished services in the Niger expedition, and died in London a true Christian sailor, after several visits from one he had helped to save.]

[Footnote 13: In addition to those who were naked on board the _Kent_ at the moment the alarm of fire was heard, several individuals afterwards threw off their clothes to enable them the more easily to swim to the boats.]

[Footnote 14: One of the soldiers' wives was delivered of a child about an hour or two after her arrival on board the brig. Both survived, and the child received the appropriate name of "Cambria."]

[Footnote 15: There were lost in the destruction of the _Kent_, 54 soldiers, 1 woman, and 20 children, belonging to the 31st Regiment; 1 seaman and 5 boys--total, 81 individuals.]

[Footnote 16: A little Testament was also saved. Only one officer's sword was saved, and that belonged to him who afterwards led the 31st regiment in the battles on the Sutlej.]

[Footnote 17: From _All the Year Round_.]