Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/138

110 tinued for two hours with great fury within musket-shot; when with one ship luffing up, and the other edging down, they fell alongside each other and grappled muzzle and muzzle. In this situation they remained about half an hour, the slaughter very great on both sides. The French, being more numerous, were preparing to board, when by some fatal accident, the Trincomali blew up, and every soul on board perished, except one English seaman, named Thomas Dawson, and a lascar. The explosion was so great, and the ships so close, that the privateer's broadside was stove in.

"I leave you to judge the dreadful situation I was in at this crisis; being below two decks, in the square of the main-hatchway, in the place appointed for the wounded; which was full of poor souls of that description in circumstances too shocking to be described. All at once the hatchway was filled in with wood, the lights were driven out, the water rushing in, and no visible passage to the deck. The ship appeared to be shaken to pieces, as the hold beams had shrunk so considerably, that where there was room before to stand nearly upright, you could now only crawl on hands and knees, which I did towards the hole on the side where the water was coming in. Close to this, by the light of the moon, I found a hole through both decks, which had been newly made, I suppose, by the falling of some of the Trincomali's guns, or other wreck. Through this I got with difficulty upon deck, when I