vessel. The starboard-quarter boat was washed away. About half-past 6 P. M. there was a lull, and it was nearly calm, the wind backing to the south-west, and the sea became comparatively quiet. The barometer having fallen as low as 28° 45″, the ship was kept away north by east, and the topsails re-secured, portions of them having blown adrift. At 8 P. M. the wind began to blow again, and within half an hour the hurricane was as severe as before. The larboard-quarter boat was torn from the davits and blown across the poop, carrying away the binnacle and crushing the hencoops in its passage. At 9 P. M., the hurricane still increasing, the foremast broke into three pieces, and carried away with it the jib-boom, the main and mizen topmasts, the starboard cathead, and mainyard, the main and mizen masts alone standing. At 10 P. M. the wind and rain were so severe that the men could not hold on upon the poop. The soldiers were engaged in baling the water out of their quarters between decks, whither it had been forced down the hatches. In other respects the ship was quite tight and free from leak, proving herself to be a capital sea boat. The pumps being attended to drew out the water which was forced down the hatches, mast-coats, and topside forwards.

During the hurricane, numbers of land-birds were driven on board—a case not uncommon during storms—and an owl and a hawk were observed perched on the swinging table on the poop, without shewing any alarm at the presence of the ship’s company. It was not noticed what became of them. This circumstance tended to shew the intensity of the tempest on shore, which must have forced these birds out to sea, a distance not much less than two hundred miles from any land.

Monday, 11th.—The hurricane was equally severe, the wind south-east, and the barometer as low as 28° 0″. The gusts were so terrific, mixed with drift and rain, that none of the people could stand on the deck. Advantage was therefore taken of the lulls to draw the ship out, and clear away the wreck of the masts. As the starboard bower-anchor was hanging only by the shank-painter, and its stock, which was of iron, was working into the ship’s side, the chain-cable was unshackled, and the anchor was cut away from the bows. At noon, latitude, per log, 11° 6″ north longitude 95° 20″ east, the barometer apparently rose a little. No observations had been able to be made since the 7th. The hurricane was equally severe in gusts, and the ship perfectly unmanageable from her crippled state, but rode all the time like a sea-bird on the waves, notwithstanding the sea was apparently running from every point of the compass. The crew observed a large barque ahead of them which had lost its topmast and mainyard. They feared at first that she would not go clear of them. Happily, however, she drifted past ahead of them. This vessel afterwards proved to have been the Briton, of which we shall presently have occasion to speak. They also saw a brig to leeward, totally dismasted. From her appearance it was judged that she must soon have foundered, and every soul on board perished. At 4 in the afternoon the barometer fell to 27° 70″, and Cummin’s mineral sympiesometer left the index.

The hurricane was now most terrific; the part of the poop to leeward and the cabin-doors and the skylights were literally torn away, and every moment they expected the poop itself to be carried off. None but those who have witnessed so awful a tempest at sea could form an idea of the weight and destructive power of the wind, crushing and beating every thing to pieces, as if it had been done with a heavy metallic body. At 8 P. M. the soldiers and sailors could not stand at the pumps, but were obliged to bale out the water from between decks.

Tuesday, the 12th.—At the turn of the day the hurricane still continued, and the rudder was gone. At 1 A. M. they felt the ship strike, and gave themselves up for lost, expecting every moment to be engulphed in the depths of the ocean.

But it pleased Him, whom the winds and the sea obey,

to decree otherwise, and, at the moment of impending destruction, the ship and all her inmates were saved.

After a short time, it was discovered that the ship was thrown on a reef of rocks, and had bilged; and although the water entered her through the holes which the rocks had made, and filled her up to the lower beams, yet that it soon smothered, and, the bilge pieces keeping her upright, she lay comparatively quiet. But being fearful that she might beat over the reef into deep water, they let go the larboard bower-anchor, and shortly afterwards found the water leaving her. After this all hands fell asleep, being exhausted with fatigue and hardship. Captain Doutty and the military gentlemen were in Captain Stapleton’s cabin, which was the only one habitable. Captain Doutty felt too anxious to rest long, but lay watching whilst all was still, except the beating of the waves and the rain on the poop. He then went out in front of the poop. He could discern nothing but the surf breaking heavily on and around his unfortunate vessel. He then lay down again, wishing earnestly for the break of day.

THE DELIVERANCE.

At length the morning broke, which was to introduce the ship’s company, just rescued from a watery grave, to a new era in their existence. With the daybreak the hurricane also began to break, and, though it rained heavily, the barometer rose rapidly until it stood at 29° 45″. The captain then beheld, to his great joy, the loom, or land-mark of the shore, to leeward, rising like a black belt, above the breakers. The land was an island, off the east coast of the Great Andaman, in latitude 12° 1″ north, and longitude about 93° 14″ east. The Andaman Islands, which are about eight in number, and covered with trees, form a group at the entrance of the Bay of Bengal, and are near 750 miles from the Sand Heads at Calcutta, and twelve degrees from the Equator. That on which the vessel was driven was in point of latitude about the centre, and may be easily known by a remarkable hill somewhat resembling a puritan’s hat, and being placed in a hollow of the land, with much higher hills, both on the north and south of it. The anchorage is good, and a ship may be sheltered from all points.

Hullmandel & Walton Lithographers.

N^o. 1.
THE POSITION OF THE SHIPS, AT DAYBREAK, MORNING, 12^TH. NOVEMBER

About 60 years ago an attempt was made on the part of the East-India Company to form a settlement on the Andaman Islands for the convenience of shipping. Their first settlement was called Port Chatham, on the