ll on the long rolling swell of the bay.
The vessel looked like an immense cage of charred basket-work filled
with flame, that here and there blazed brighter at intervals. Above,
and far to leeward, there was a vast drifting cloud of curling smoke
spangled with millions of sparks and burning flakes, and scattered by
the wind over the sky and waves.

"As the _Caroline_ approached, part of a mast and some spars, rising and
falling, were observed grinding under the weather-quarter of the wreck,
having got entangled with the keel or rudder irons, and thus attaching
it to the hull of the vessel. The _Caroline_, coming down swift before
the wind, was in a few minutes brought across the bows of the _Kent_. At
that moment a shout was heard as if from the very centre of the fire,
and the same instant several figures were observed clinging to a mast.
The sea was heavy, and the wreck threatened every moment to disappear.
The _Caroline_ was hove-to to leeward, in order to avoid the showers of
flakes and sparks, and to intercept any boats or rafts. The mate and
four seamen pushed off in the jolly-boat, through a sea covered with
floating spars, chests, and furniture, that threatened to crush or
overwhelm the boat. When within a few yards of the stern, they caught
sight of the first living thing--a wretched man clinging to a spar
close under the ship's counter. Every time the stern-frame rose with the
swell he was suspended above the water, and scorched by the long keen
tongues of pure flame that now came darting through the gun-room ports.
Each time this torture came the man shrieked with agony; the next moment
the surge came and buried him under the wave, and he was silent. The
_Caroline's_ men, defying the fire, pulled close to him, but just as
their hands were stretching towards him (latterly the poor wretch had
been silent), the rope or spar was snapped by the fire, and he sank for
ever.

"The men then, carefully backing, carried off six other of the nearest
men from the mast. The small boat, only eighteen feet long, would not
hold more than eleven persons, and indeed, as it was, was nearly swamped
by a heavy wave. In half-an-hour the boat bravely returned, and took off
six more.

"The mate, fearing the vessel was going down, and that the masts would
be swallowed in the vortex, redoubled his efforts to get a third time to
the wreck. While struggling with a head sea, and before the boat could
reach the mast, the end came. The