Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1826-05-18

From he .farsra and Franklin Carte.

Frou. Re aurora and Franklin Ga-sfe
GREEK FIRESHIP - While lying
in the harbor of MYLo there came into
that port a Spizziote division OF the
Greek fleet; amongst them were num-
Der Of iireships. Several of the officers
of the Ontario with myself visited them,
and were much gratifi ed by having an
opportunity of examining these wonder
ful engines of destruction. We were
much astonshed at the simplicity OF
their construction, an pleased to see that
if once fire it would be impossible to
extiuguish them. he commanders took
a great deal of pains TO explain every
thing TO us: one Of them stated that he
had destroyed two frigaIes, and Ieels very
confident of always being sue essful,
provided they can attack the enemy at
anchor.
They are vessels generally of about
500 to 400 tons burlhen, and mostly
Polalte brig rugged they were formerly
merchantmen, before the revolution; are
strong vessels and mostly sail fast. They
have chain sings for all their yards, a0d
at yards arms, grapple or fire hooks, and
a box on the lower yard arms containing
combustibie matter, which burns lor
some considerable time. The chain
sings are for the purpose OF keeping the
yards from falling as long as possible
after the rigging and sails are on fire.
They have other fire hooks on the bow
spirit with boxes of combustibIes: there
is train which leads TO the boxes in the
yard arm aud bowsprit, which commu-
nicates with them and sets them on fire;
before The rigging takes fire they are
filled with granedes aud fire balls. A
long the deck within about two feet Of
the water way, they have ! 2 or - hatch
es; these matches are kept closely shut
when they are approaching an enemy,
SO that any fire from them may not
communicate with the hold; they have
also ports along the outside which they
also keep close shut until they are a
bout to fire the train, when they heave
off the matches on deck and open the
ports, which fall down. rhe flame then
has fair opportunity of rising out Of
the matches and bursting from the sides.
They have between deck fore and aft
on which they have large CRIBS, built like
double births, which are filled with light
pine, dipped in tar or turpentine; mixed
with this is a quantity of tusbush, dipped
in the same substance; they also put on
old tarpaulins and other combtstables,
taking care not to have it lay too close
together. ARREST of every deck hatch
they have barrel of fire balls, and
close to it hatch cut through the be-
tween decks, so as to make a draft from
the hold, where they have nothing but
ballast
The trains are laid fore and aft in
troughs of two inches wide and three
deep, running in every direction along
the deck, which is covered with tar and
turpentine, as we'll as all the beams and
earrings. The train is generally fred
from the cabin windows. but in case it
should be required, they can set fire to
it from any Of the ports along side
Justbeiore they intend going along side
OF an enemy, they wet all the sails with
spirits of turpentine and fill the train
troughs with powder; all hands with the
exception Of the captain get into the
boat astern, which are very fast rowing
boats, and pull with from twelve to four
teen oars, which is all the crew of the fire
ship; the boat carries two small guns.
When every thing is ready, the captain
being the only one on board, steers di
rect for the vessel he intends laying on
board, which he tries to strike about the
fore chains, and does not leave the helm
until she is fairly grappled with the ene-
my; he then jumps into the boat astern
and fires pistol into the train, when the
vessel is instantly in blaze, which it
would be impossible TO extinguish. am
told they burn from one half to three
quarters of an hour, before they sink; ;
they do not blow up as it has been gen.
orally stated.
DICKINSON COLLEGE.