[Illustration: BURNING OF THE KENT EAST INDIAMAN.]




BURNING OF THE KENT EAST INDIAMAN.


This picture represents the burning of the Kent East Indiaman, in the
Bay of Biscay. She had on board in all six hundred and forty-one persons
at the time of the accident. The fire broke out in the hold during a
storm. An officer on duty, finding that a spirit cask had broken loose,
was taking measures to secure it, when a lurch of the ship caused him to
drop his lantern, and in his eagerness to save it, he let go the cask,
which suddenly stove in, and the spirits communicated with the flame,
the whole place was instantly in a blaze. Hopes of subduing the fire at
first were strong, but soon heavy volumes of smoke and a pitchy smell
told that it had reached the cable-room.

In these awful circumstances, the captain ordered the lower decks to be
scuttled, to admit water. This was done; several poor seamen being
suffocated by the smoke in executing the order; but now a new danger
threatened, the sea rushed in so furiously, that the ship was becoming
water-logged, and all feared her going down. Between six and seven
hundred human beings, were by by this time crowded on the deck. Many on
their knees earnestly implored the mercy of an all-powerful God! while
some old stout-hearted sailors quietly seated themselves directly over
the powder magazine, expecting an explosion every moment, and thinking
thus to put a speedier end to their torture.