Page:Loss of the Comet steam-boat on her passage from Inverness to Glasgow, on Friday the 21st October, 1825.pdf/10

 as truly heart-rending, and must have included the condensed sufferings of a protracted life. All who could force their way from the cabins to the deck hurried there in the extremity of terror, all doomed to experience the fallacy of those dreams of home, which voyagers naturally indulge when near their destined port. Captain McInnes was instantly aware of the damaged state of the vessel; but suspecting the injury was foreships, he called to the passengers, as a last resource, to come aft, trusting the packet would right. At the same time, he ordered the engine to be set on, and the boat to be run ashore. Unhappily, neither of these expedients availed. An attempt, equally unsuccessful, was made to get out the yawl, which was hung astern; but, in the hurry, the tackling could not be unlossed. The ropes were then cut; and, in consequence, about twenty-six or thirty people, who had crowded into her, were precipitated into the water, and she fell into it, keel uppermost. The sea rushed into every part of the vessel with frightful rapidity, and quickly stopped the engine; and she soon sank from under the feet of the miserable multitude on her deck, who fell in groups on each other, and unquestionably contributed to increase the general calamity by the manner in which they clustered together.