those saved from that ill-fated ship, gives the following account of the calamitous disaster alluded to:
About twenty minutes after six o’clock in the morning, as he was dressing himself, he heard throughout the ship a general cry of “fire!” on which he immediately ascended from the cockpit, and found the half-deck, the front bulk-head of the Admiral’s cabin, the coat of the main-mast, and the covering of the boats on the booms, all in flames; which from every report, and in all probability, was occasioned by some hay, lying under the half-deck, having been set on fire by a match, which was usually kept there for signal guns. The main-sail at this time was set, and almost instantly caught fire; the people not being able to come to the clue-garnets on account of the flames. He immediately went to the forecastle, and there found Lieutenant Dundas and the boatswain encouraging the people to get water to extinguish the fire. He applied to Lieutenant Dundas, seeing no other officer in the fore part of the ship (and being unable to see any on the quarter-deck, owing to the smoke and flames between them), to give him assistance to drown the lower decks, and secure the hatches, to prevent the fire falling down. Lieutenant Dundas accordingly went down himself, with as many people as he could prevail upon to follow him, opened the lower-deck ports, plugged the scuppers, secured the fore and main hatches, turned the cocks, drew water in at the ports, and kept the pumps going by the people who came down, as long as they could stand to work them. He thinks that by these exertions the lower-deck was kept free from fire, and the magazines preserved for a long time from danger; nor did Lieutenant Dundas or himself quit their station, but remained there with all the people who could be prevailed upon to stay, till several of the guns overhead came through the middle-deck. About nine o’clock, Lieutenant Dundas and himself, finding it impossible to remain any longer below, went out at the bridle-port, and got upon the forecastle, on which, he apprehends, there were then about 150 men drawing water, and throwing it as far aft as possible upon the fire. He continued about an hour on the forecastle; and then finding all efforts to extinguish the flames unavailing, he jumped from the jib-boom, and swam to an American boat approaching, by which he was picked up and put into a tartan, then in the charge of Lieutenant John Stewart, who had come off from Leghorn to the assistance of the ship, and of whom his messmate, the present Captain Archibald Duff, speaks in the following terms:
“To the active and intrepid conduct of that lamented ornament to the British navy, the major part of those who escaped, owe their preservation[1]. Steward had been early in the morning informed of the dreadful situation of our noble ship. The burning of Troy could not have been a more tremendous or awful sight to AEneas. The ship was in one blaze from stem- ↑ Lieutenant Stewart was afterwards promoted to post rank. He died Oct. 26, 1811. A long memoir of him appears in the Naval Chronicle, vol. 28, pp. 1–47.
