of the Hon. Sir Robert Stopford, Sir James Nicoll Morris, and Captain Francis Beaufort.[1]
Lieutenant Tailour’s next appointment was to be first of the Hindostan 54, armed en flute, and commanded by Captain Le Gros; which ship sailed from Plymouth with stores for the use of the Mediterranean fleet, February 12, 1804. The following account of her destruction by fire, is taken from Captain Brenton’s Naval History, Vol. III. p. 394 et seq.
“The Hindostan, a ship built for an Indiaman, of 1100 tons burden, was loaded with every article of which the British squadron could he supposed to stand in need. Her crew consisted of about 300 people, including passengers, women, and children; she arrived at Gibraltar in March, and sailed immediately, in company with the Phoebe frigate, to join Lord Nelson off Toulon. On the 30th, she was separated from her consort, in a heavy gale of wind, in the gulf of Lyons; and on the 2nd of April, at 7 in the morning, when no ship was in sight, and she was thirteen leagues from the land, smoke was observed to issue from the fore-hatchway. The hammocks were instantly got on deck, and the drum beat to quarters. The fire engine was set to work, but with little effect; the smoke encreased so much, as to prevent the people working on the orlop-deck; the hatches were therefore laid over and secured, the ports barred in, and every measure resorted to, in order to prevent the circulation of air. In the mean time she hove-to, and hoisted the boats out; but to prevent the people rushing into them, the marines were kept under arms. Prepared for the worst, they made all sail for the land: providentially the wind was fair, and they stood in for the bay of Rosas, with signals of distress flying at each mast-head, but no vessel was in sight to afford them relief. The fire rapidly increasing, the exertions of the captain and his noble crew increased with the danger. Water was thrown down in torrents, and part of the powder was destroyed or thrown overboard; in doing this one man was suffocated, and the people were again forced to quit the lower decks.
“At 2 P.M., when they had been seven hours contending with the flames they made the land. The joy of this discovery is not to be described or felt by any but those who have been in such a perilous situation; but they had still much to do; the land was five leagues off, and at half-past two, the flames flew up the fore and main hatchways as high as the lower yards. Some of the men now jumped overboard to got to the boats, and many of them were drowned.[2] Tarpaulins were kept over the hatches, and water was still poured down, by which means the flames subsided a little- ↑ See Vol. I. Part I. p. 356; id. Part II, p. 489, et seq.; and Suppl. Part II. p. 84.
- ↑ Only 2 we believe. The total number that perished, first and last, certainly did not exceed 5; we rather think that it was but 3.
