Page:Loss of the Comet steam-boat on her passage from Inverness to Glasgow, on Friday the 21st October, 1825.pdf/15

 of their loss, lay down at the end of house in Gourock, and for a time refused food. Another dog lay down beside the luggage that had been washed ashore, and was with difficulty induced to leave the spot.

A gentleman who was on board the Ayr, remarked, that when the water came in contact with the furnace of the Comet, a sudden blaze of mingled flame and steam threw a momentary glare of red light over the sinking vessel and the devoted crowd her quarter-deck. There were three ladies and four gentlemen, cabin-passengers, the Ayr, and about a dozen people in the steerage.

Early on Friday morning, Claud Marshall, sheriff-substitute of Renfrewshire, arrived at Gourock, and, assisted by Mr ankine of that place, and Mr Leitch, one of the magistrates of Greenock, employed himself with unremitting diligence in the painful duty of superintending the search for the bodies, and examining them when brought ashore. Exact descriptions of their dresses, and inventories of the property found on them, were taken; and, afterwards, they were deposited in the church of Gourock. As the morning advanced, the village filled rapidly with strangers, anxious to learn the extent of the accident and