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

COMET STEAM-PACKET. 407
dulge when near their destined port. Cap
tain M'Innes was instantly aware of the
damaged state of his vessel; but suspecting
the injury was foreships, he called to the pas¬
sengers, as a last resource, to come aft, trust¬
ing the packet would right. At the same
time he ordered the engine to be set on, and
the boat to be run ashore. Unhapppily,
neither of these expedients availed. An at¬
tempt, equally unsuccessful, was made to get
out the yawl, which was hung astern; but, in
the hurry, the tackling could not be unloosed.
The ropes were then cut; and, in consequence,
about twenty-six or thirty people, who had
crowded into her, were precipitated into the
water, and she fell into it keel uppermost.
The sea rushed into every part of the vessel
with frightful rapidity, and quickly stopped
the engine; and she soon sank from under the
feet of the miserable multitude on her deck,
who fell in groups on each other, and unques¬
tionably contributed to increase the general
calamity by the manner in which they clus¬
tered together.
The first assistance tendered to such of the
sufferers as were enabled to struggle success¬
fully with the merciless element, came from