THE RESISTANCE

Before concluding this chapter, we will briefly relate another
catastrophe, somewhat similar to that of the Amphion, but which
affords a still more remarkable instance of the preservation of four
individuals, from one of whom the following particulars were
ascertained:----

It appears that the RESISTANCE, of 44 guns, Captain Edward Pakenham,
had anchored in the Straits of Banca, on the 23rd of July, 1798.
Between three and four o'clock in the morning of the 24th, the ship
was struck by lightning: the electric fluid must have penetrated and
set fire to some part of the vessel near to the magazine, as she blew
up with a fearful violence a few moments after the flash. Thomas
Scott, a seaman, one of the few survivors, stated that he was lying
asleep on the starboard side of the quarter-deck, when being suddenly
awakened by a bright blaze, and the sensation of scorching heat, he
found his hair and clothes were on fire. A tremendous explosion
immediately followed, and he became insensible. He supposed that some
minutes must have elapsed before he recovered, when he found himself,
with many of his comrades, struggling in the waves amongst pieces of
the wreck. The Resistance had sunk, but the hammock netting was just
above water on the starboard side, and with much difficulty Scott and
the other survivors contrived to reach it. When they were able to look
around them, they found that twelve men alone remained of a crew of
above three hundred, including the marines. The calmness of the