Page images
PDF
EPUB

Gilmour, H. Kelly, 1st mate, Hugh Smith, 2d do., John M'Nabb, carpenter, Charles Stevens, R. Jones, Alex. Stuart, seamen, and Andrew Close, apprentice, Samuel M'Cartney, husband and father of the female and children who died in the boat, and Margaret Crouch, passengers. McCartney has since been taken to the Marine Hospital in a very exhausted state, as have two of the crew.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE HORRORS OF NAVAL BRAVERY,

Of the French Fleet, at Aboukir, under command of Admiral Brueys.

"MOST of the captains of the French fleet were killed or wounded, and they all fought with the enthusiastic courage which is characteristic of their nation.

"The captain of the Tonnant, Petit Thours, when both his legs were carried away by a cannon ball, refused to quit the quarter deck, and made his crew swear not to strike their colours as long as they had a man capable of standing to their guns. Admiral Brueys died the death of the brave, on his quarter deck, exhorting his men to continue the combat to the last extremity. Casa Bianca, captain of the L'Orient, fell mortally wounded when the flames were devouring that splendid vessel: his son, a boy of ten years of age, was combating beside him when he was struck, and, embracing his father, resolutely refused to quit the vessel, though a gun boat was coming alongside to bring him off. He contrived to bind his dying parent to the mast, which had fallen into the sea, and floated off with the precious charge. He was seen, after the ship blew up, by some of the British squadron, who made the utmost efforts to save his life: but in the agitation of the waves following that dreadful event both were swallowed and seen no more."

up

O the horrors of a naval victory!

PHILO-NAVIGATOR.

RECOLLECTIONS OF THE BATTLE OF THE NILE.

SUCH was the battle of the Nile, for which he who gained it felt that VICTORY was too feeble a word: he called it

CONQUEST! Of thirteen ships of the line, nine were taken and two burnt; of four frigates, one was sunk and one burnt. The British loss was 895 in killed and wounded; they had to lament the death of only one commander, Captain Westcott, a brave and able officer. Of the French 5,225 perished, and 3,105 were taken and sent on shore, including the wounded with all their effects, on their parole not to serve again until regularly exchanged; an act of humanity which was ill requited by Napoleon, who incorporated the whole who were capable of bearing arms into a regiment of his army! The annals of the world do not afford an example of so complete an overthrow of so great

an armament.

The Arabs and Egyptians lined the shore during this terrible engagement, and beheld with mingled terror and astonishment the destruction which the Europeans were inflicting on each other. The beach, for an extent of four leagues, was covered with wreck, and innumerable bodies were seen floating in the bay, in spite of the utmost exertions of both fleets to sink them.

No sooner, however, was the conquest completed than a perfect stillness pervaded the whole squadron; it was the moment of the THANKSGIVING, which by orders of NELSON was offering up through all the fleet for the signal success which the Almighty had vouchsafed to the British arms.

The French prisoners remarked, that it was no wonder such order was preserved in the British Navy, when at such an hour, and after such a victory, their minds could be impressed with such sentiments.-Alison's History of Europe.

UNIVERSAL SEA LANGUAGE.

CAPTAIN SIR JOHN Ross is engaged upon an English edition (a French one is already published, and a German and Spanish edition are soon to follow), of a system of universal telegraphic language, to be used between vessels of all nations at sea. It is due, originally, to an officer of the Danish navy, Captain Rhodes, from whom he received it at Copenhagen, in July, 1834. He had submitted it to the Board of Admiralty, who have recently passed upon it a highly favourable report. It is perfectly simple and cheap. The book will not cost more than sixteen shillings

sterling, and a vessel will require no further equipment than the flags under which she sails, a jack, ensign, and pennant (colour immaterial), and two white flags. By means of these, any communication can pass between vessels at sea, or a vessel and the shore; mutual information on a dangerous coast, of safe harbours, in desperate situations; messages to relatives, &c., to any extent. Captain Ross states, that during the forty years of his naval service, with such a means of communication, he could have witnessed the saving of hundreds of lives.

STEAM PASSAGE TO INDIA.

THE first mail from England to India, by way of Alexandria, arrived at Bombay on the 22d of April last, in fifty days. The time required for the passage is seventeen days from Falmouth to Malta, five days from Malta to Alexandria, twenty days from Alexandria to Bombay, including stoppage.

EUROPEAN INTERCOURSE WITH NEW

ZEALAND.

REVEREND W. YATE, of the Church Missionary Society, recently returned from New Zealand, in his entertaining "Account of New Zealand," speaks of the vessels visiting its ports as follows :—

"During the last ten years, all parts of New Zealand, where harbours are found, have been visited by European vessels; and in many places mercantile establishments have been formed, which have realized, on the whole, a tolerable return to the adventurers engaged in them, though, as might have been expected, in several instances they have failed. Vast numbers of whaling vessels touch at the various harbours on the eastern coast, for supplies of potatoes and pork and other fresh provisions, the produce of the country. In the Bay of Islands there have been at anchor, at one time, as many as twenty-seven vessels, most of them upwards of three hundred tons burthen; all of which have been supplied, by the industry of the inhabitants, with a sufficient stock of fresh provisions for a long whaling cruise. The harbours to the south of the

Bay of Islands are resorted to by vessels trading for flax: and in Cloudy Bay are several large whaling establishments; as, in calving time, that large sheet of water is visited by immense numbers of the black whale, many of which are killed; and, as they afford a good quantity of oil, the trade, in a prosperous season, is a lucrative one. There are also several establishments for the seal-fishery on the coast of New Zealand, or on the small islands in the vicinity of the coast. A number of sailors are landed, and left to kill and skin the seals, many thousands of which are destroyed in the course of a few months. The isolated situation of the sealers must render their employment exceedingly unpleasant; with merely a rush hut to screen them from the inclemency of the weather, frequently many hours of each day in mud and water, dependent upon very precarious supplies of provision; without medicine, without assistance in case of sickness; exposed to the caprice and cruelty of the natives living on the little islands, and having scarcely any intercourse with Europeans; these, with many other privations, must make their residence a perfect banishment for the time."

THE CHRISTIAN SHIP HAILED AT SEA.

1st Peter iii, 15: Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

66

Ship ahoy! What ship is that?"

The Zion."

Rev. iii, 12: And I will write upon him the name of the city of my God.

From whence came you?"

"From Mount Calvary."

Luke xxiii, 33: And when they were some to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him.

"Where are you bound?"

"To Paradise."

Heb. xii, 22: But ye are come unto the City of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

"Who commands her?"

"Emanuel."

Math. i, 23: And they shall call his name Emanuel.
Heb. ii, 10: The Captain of our salvation.

[merged small][ocr errors]

Eighteen hundred years."

Math. ii, 1: Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod, the king.

"What is your longitude?"

"God's approbation."

Psalm lxxxix, 15: Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.

What is your freight?"

"Love."

1st John iv, 16: God is love: and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.

"Have

had you

any

sickness on board ?"

"All hands have been sick of sin."

Rom. vi, 1, 2: Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid: how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein.

Job xlii, 6: I abhor myself.

"Have you fell in with any craft since you left port?" "We saw the enemy's fleet in the Dead Sea, off Cape Pollution, commanded by Admiral Carnal-Heart, freighted deep with woe and malice, consigned to Prince Lucifer, the owner, with all sails set for the port of Destruction."

Eph. ii, 2: In time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

2d Peter ii, 12: But these as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed-shall utterly perish in their own corruption.

"What was their condition ?"

66

Very alarming, as they had suffered much from the gale of dissipation, which had driven many of the crew to destruction and suicide."

Jude 7, 11 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

2d Thess. i, 9: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.

"Had they any one on the look-out?".

« PreviousContinue »