Butte record., 1855-11-17

patriotic to cheer for any one but in
consideration of the holiday we had en-
! joyed, end the powder we had burned on
the preceding fourth OF July, we felt it
duty to cheer any thing Yankee what
it might be.
Our questions and replies occupied
considerable time, and the attention of
all was very naturally directed toward
the schooner, to the total forgetfulness
of the burning ship.
was standing leaning over the wealth
er rail, VIII sensation Of heat at my
back induced me to turn my eyey to lee
ward, when | noticed we had drifted
into fearful proximity with the fire, and
with an exclamation of surprise and
alarm, I called the attention of the caps
tain. He was perfectly thunderstruck
at the position in Which our careles ness
had placed the ship
Lee main brace there, haul in the lee
main braces, he yelled, springing to the
rail and throwing off to windward.
The men executed the order with a
will, and the main and main-topsal yards
swung round to the back stay as if by
magic but, having been laid to, there
was Of course no headway upon the
ship, and the wind which had almost
wholly died away, scarcely filled our
sails; we we're laying broadside to the
ship, our head being exactly abreast of
her steon, at a distance not exceeding
two cables length.
Having got to the wind, or where the
wind should have been, we watched with
intense anxiety for some indication that
we were forging ahead, but the sail,
tapped idly against the masts, without
any apparent effect upon the ship. All
hands were set to work wetting the sails,
the force pump was rigged upon the top
gallant forccastle, the deck wash tub ta-
ken up into the main topmast crossrees.
and whiw for drawing water rove at
the main top p-gallant yard-arm The
sails being completely saturated, bell;ed
out as if with breeze; all danger ap-
pcared to be passed, and with cheer
louder than we had given for 'Gin'ral
Taylor we ceased our exertions, ex-
pccting to see the ship shoot ahead at
once. But no although the sails were
full, we made not the slightest headway,
and were diminishing the distance be-
tween ourselves and the burning ship
with rcarful rapidity. The cause was
apparent the vast body of fame Gauss
ing an immense quantity Of heated air
to ascend, the surrounding atmosphere
rushing in to supply its place, would in
a calm as it then was, create current
upon every side, towards the fire as a
centre, and we were slowly but surely
being sucked in to destruction, our of-
forts in wetting the sails only fastening
the catastrophe
The only thing that could now be
done WAS what shOuld have been done
in the first place, and would had it been
possible but our ship like too many
others, was provided with boats for
show, not for service they having been
put on board when the ship was new,
and no occasion arising for their use,
they had remained lashed to their davits
exposed 10 the sun and weather, voyage
after voyage, with no other care taken
of them than to apply a fresh coat of
paint at the termination of each passage,
and now that We had occasion to use
them we found the seams SO shrunk and
warped, that good sized mouse could
have gone through them without ruflIng
hair.
Our only hope was to obtain aid from
the schooner.
Schooner ahoy y beloved the cap
tain, dancing about the deck Ike mon
kew in his excitement. Schooner ahoy!
send your boats that we may row the
ship out Of this, we shall be a-fre in
ten minutes, our boats are all stove
Can't spare 'em, returned the schoo-
ner, want 'em for our own use wait
untill we are cut of the scrape and we'll
come to yon.'
The schooner was light and the yigor-
Gus exertions of her crew soon placed
her at a safe distance, when they lmme-
diately came to our assistance. More
than ten minutes could not have elapsed
hut to US It seemed ike SO many hours,