f blazing sparks and coal-dust, making us
all "as black as nayghurs," as Pat Doolan said.

The stump of the foremast, in particular, described a graceful parabolic
curve in the air, coming down into the water in close proximity to the
bows of the long-boat--where, under the supervision of the boatswain,
the steward and the carpenter were stowing provisions under the thwarts,
making the two almost jump out of their skins. It descended into the
sea with the same sort of "whish" which the stick of a signal rocket
makes when, the propelling power that had enabled it previously to soar
up so majestically into the air above being ultimately exhausted, it is
forced to return by its own gravity to its proper level below, unable to
sustain itself unaided by exterior help at the unaccustomed height to
which it was temporarily exalted.

And in this respect, it may be observed here, although I do not believe
the remark is altogether original, that a good many human rockets may be
encountered in our daily life, which exhibit all the characteristic
points and weaknesses of the ordinary material model that I have likened
them to--composed of gunpowder and other explosive pyrotechnic
substances, and familiar to all--for, they go up in the same brilliant
and glorious fashion, and are veritable shining lights in the estimation
of their friends and the fickle testimony of public opinion; only, alas,
to descend to the ordinary level of every-day mortals, like the rocket-
stick comes down in the end!

I need hardly say, though, that I had no thought of these reflections
now; for, immediately after the explosion forwards, the flames which
mounted aloft with it burst forth with full vigour, released from the
confined space of the hold to which they had been previously limited,
and the entire fore-part of the ship, from the waist to the knight-
heads, became a mass of fire, the cavity disclosed by the riven deck
adjacent to the fo'c's'le being like a raging volcano, vomiting up
clouds of thick yellow smoke from the glowing mass of ignited coal
below, which almost suffocated us, as the ship went too slowly through
the water for the vapour to trail off to leeward.

The mainmast was still standing, with the mainsail set before the
southerly wind, that was blowing in towards the land, the force of the
explosion not being vented much further aft than the windlass bitts;
but, almost as we looked, tongues of flame began to creep up the main
rigg