Latitude at noon, 13 deg. 12 min. south. At five P. M., the
foresail and foretopsail were set, the rafts were cut away, and the ship
bore for the Mauritius. On Thursday, the 19th, she sighted the Island of
Rodrigues, and arrived at Mauritius on Monday the 23rd."
The Nile and Trafalgar are not more glorious to our country, are not
greater victories than these won by our merchant-seamen. And if you look
in the Captain's reports of any maritime register, you will see similar
acts recorded every day. I have such a volume for last year, now
lying before me. In the second number, as I open it at hazard, Captain
Roberts, master of the ship "Empire," from Shields to London, reports
how on the 14th ult. (the 14th December, 1859), he, "being off Whitby,
discovered the ship to be on fire between the main hold and boilers: got
the hose from the engine laid on, and succeeded in subduing the fire;
but only apparently; for at seven the next morning, the 'Dudgeon'
bearing S.S.E. seven miles' distance, the fire again broke out, causing
the ship to be enveloped in flames on both sides of midships: got the
hose again into play and all hands to work with buckets to combat with
the fire. Did not succeed in stopping it till four P.
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