Accidents > Dangers of the deep, or, Narratives of shipwreck and adventure at sea

39G BtntNINO OF THE
his hold of the rope and perished, had not
some one in the boat seized him by the hair
of the head and dragged him into it, almost
senseless and dreadfully bruized.
Captain Cobb, in his immoveable resolution
to be the last, if possible, to quit his ship, and
in his generous anxiety for the preservation
of every life entrusted to his charge, refused
to seek the boat, until he again endeavoured
to urge onwards the very few still around him,
who seemed struck dumb and powerless with
dismay. But finding all his entreaties fruit¬
less, and hearing the guns, whose tackle was
burst asunder by the advancing flames, suc¬
cessively exploding in the hold into which
they had fallen, this gallant officer, after hav¬
ing nobly pursued, for the preservation ot
others, a course of exertion that has been
rarely equalled either in its duration or diffi¬
culty, at last felt it right to provide for his
own safety, by laying hold on the topping-
lift, or rope that connects the driver-boom
with the mizen-top, and thereby getting over
the heads of the infatuated men who occupied
the boom, unable to go either backward or
forward, and ultimately dropping himself into
the water.