The weekly Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1854-1861, 1859-11-09
The Burning Ship.
1T tue AUTHOR OF "CRuIsxs IN TIE LAST WAR;

old turnpike, so that a span of blooded hor-
ses will take you there in forty minutes
His wife is a pretty augel-beautiful, sweet
tempered, and loves Harry devotedIy. And
then group Of his lovely children !
"Dd you ever hear how Isabel and be-.
csme acquainted I" said he to me one eve
ming, looking on his wife. shook my head
in the negative. "WelI, then, draw your
chair closer to the fire, and will tell you"
With these words he began;
II was night in the tropics. We had
been in pursuit Of heavy merchantm an, bu,
a fog coming up che was shut in from our
sight, and for more than an hour refnsined
Invisible. Suddenly, howev"r, the moon
broke forth, and we saw the chase close
hauled. and on the very point of escaping US,
We instantly made all sail, but the wind was
50 uncertain that the stranger kept his ad.
vantage, the sir being comparatively still
with US, while he had a respectable breeze.
A, length it fell decd calm, the chase be
ing by this time several miles of.
She could now be seen lying in liquid
flood OF moonlight, rising and falling Ihz,ly
upon her swels, her white sails scarcely ly
moving from the mast, and flashing in the
distance like sea-gull's snowy wing. All
at once Captain Drew, who had been scruti.
nizlng her through his glass, rxcla med:
"There is something the matter on board
there, the men have almost all lett her deck.
and even those olott repairing are coming
down-what can it mean, Mr. jones !"
81 csn't make out, sir-the crew, perhaps
have mutnied they are running, wildly
hither and thither-no, my God, the ship:
on fire - he circulated, as cloud of thick
black smoke suddenly puffed up her tore
hstchwuy, followed by a long, vivid stre4 nj
OF fire, that shot up brighter into the mid.
night sky.
We saw at once that the flames must have
been ra&ing some time in the hold, and thai
they had attained an intensity which would
DEFY every effort to subdue them. 1t was
tearfu sight. The eager element shot olong
the rigging, ran swiftly up the Ioremnst, and
wrapping the hamper in a sheet OF fire, and
streamed almost perpendicularIy upwards OF
a ia'hom or two above the trunk. There
was breeze but the undulntions of the OF.
mosphere swept the dense smoke to one side,
forming as it were, gloomy curtain agaiIs,
which the Iurid flames shone in terrible re-
lief. Every object on board could now be
distinctly seen, ond we noticed that all at
once the whole crew rushed aft. A signal
OF distress the next instant WAS shown on the
quarter. AL this had passed in moment.
"LoWer away the boats-pipe their crews
there, boatswain ! qnick, sic, or the poor
wretches will be lost !" thuntercd the cap
tain.
The men hurried to their stations, fred
with sympashy equal to his own.
"Mr. Duntorth," he said, II sha give you
the command of the leading boat spare no
effort 20 reach them il time--bu;," he con-
t:nued, in a whisper, "mind the mngezlne :"
"Ay, ay, sir" answered, touching my
hat, and lesping into the stern sheets.
continued, "push off'here forward-and now
give way with u will, boys-puH"
At these words the men bent to their oars
with the thews Of giants, curling the waters
in foam beneath our bows and sending the
boats along as if they had been pleasure
boats.
i But swift as was cur progress, that Of the
destroying element was still more so. TIL
fire had spread with such fearful rapidly as
to wrap the whole fore part OF the ship ia
flames, and threatened to consume her be
fore we could arrive. Since it had ound
vent, it had rsged with redoubIed fury, until
now the shrouds, the loren ,st, the bowsprir,
the yards, everything was sheeed with fire,
which, whirling round and round, oscended
spiraly to the mast head, shooting it's forkv
tongue out on every hand, and streaming
like meteor away up, in the calm blue sky
Meanwhile the flames had broken out from
the after hatch, aud catching at once to thu
ratlins, leaped from rope to rope. ran wildl.
up the rigging, spread almost instantly to lh'
huge lower sails, Kissing, flashing and roar
ing as they went, until at length the who'll
ship seemed a mass of lurid fire, and nothing
was lett untouched but the narrow quarter.
deck, on which the now despairing crew had
gathered in crowds, some eagerly endenvor
ing to lower the only boat that had escapeG
the flames. some trbnticalIy crying out TO-
mercy, some cursing and disappearing aw
fully in their agony, and some stretching oul
their hands implOriOg for help.
"Givs way, my men, give way-will you
see those miserable wretches burned before
your eyes 2" | shouted, rising in the boat and
waving my hat to the sufferers; forgetting
in the excitement Of the moment the i'm.
tninency of our own danger in case Of an ex.
plosion. The poor wretches on the quarter
deck OF the burning ship answered back with
u hysteric shout. Our gallant tsrs started
like melted hounds at the cry, and with .
lew vigorous strokes we dashed Up to the
quarter.
"Keep her of there," I shouted, seeing
that she would be swamped by the esgerDess
Of the sufferers to escape "keep her of
jump overheard and we'll pick you up," |
continued, as we fell off from her quarter