The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-22 00:00:00

THE CONFLAGRATION.

In the afternoon it was apparent to officers and men
that the fire had got between decks, and that all efforts
to save the steamer would prove useless. But they re-
mained by the vessel until 5 o'clock, when the smoke was
discovered issuing through the interstices of the forward
deck. Officers and crew then took to the boats and
went to shore, returning, however, from time to time for
things which could be removed, until 7 o'clock, at which
time the smoke began to ascend in large volumes. Later
flashes of light burst from the forward deck. Soon the
flames came through and caught in the light work on the
deck. and thence crept along until they reached the
wood-work forming the state-rooms and cabins.
Thence it darted up the masts tempted by the .close
reefed topsails, the burning fragments of which
were carried off by the night winds into the
ocean like a shower of brilliant meteors. At 11
o'clock the whole vessel's deck was ablaze from bowsprit
to stern rail, lighting up the heavens with a lurid glare,
and presenting a spectacle of awful grandeur and magnifi-
cence. The wire rigging became red-hot, and looked like
lines of fire extending up to the cross-trees above. Gilded
balls, which surmounted either mast, and in the daytime
flashed with the glare of the sun's reflected rays, were now
burning spheres, overhanging the vortex of flame, and
seemingly suspended in the blackness of Erebus. A while
after, the sides of the vessel assumed a red heat in spots,
the rich colour of which passed from centre to circum-
ference into a beautiful gradation of tints. As the flames
reached the resin, they would flash up in brilliant bursts
of fire and light, followed by dense overhanging clouds
of black smoke. The sea between the vessel and the
shore shone like molten gold in the ever-changing forms of
billow and breaker. So light was it on shore that one
could read as easily as under the sunlight. At two o'clock
in the morning of Thursday the foremast fell to starboard
with a tremendous crash into the sea. A half hour sub-
sequently the maintopmast tumbled from its height into
the vessel, and from the crash were emitted untold thou-
sands of scintillating sparks which went up into the air,
spangling the black background of smoke, and presenting
a view of inconceivable brilliancy. Passengers and crew
say they never saw a spectacle so grand—and yet so
awful—from the moment the flames began to ascend from
the deck until the dawn of morning left nothing but dark
clouds of smoke to be seen rising from the vessel's hull.
They ceased to think of the annoyance of their situation
in their enthusiastic admiration of the ever-changing aspect
of the colossal pyrotechnics.
" NOTHING TO WEAR."

With our lives insured, we luckless but lucky voyagers
counted up our losses. Every one had lost his or her
baggage. Ladies who had started north with Saratoga
trunks enough to build a small fortification suddenly
found themselves possessed of a night dress, a hand-
kerchief, a box of hair pins, a comb and brush, a
tooth brush, a button hook, and a bottle of eau de
Cologne, a paper of pins, and an extra collar as their
entire outfit, with what they had on, for passing the sum-
mer at a fashionable resort. Real Flora M`Flimseys
were numerous ; and as for us men, he who had an
extra shirt and a box of paper collars was a leader of
fashion.