impression on my mind that I was safer at
my gun than elsewhere; nevertheless, I felt
go I must, so up I ran. On gaining the
main–deck, I found it a terrible scene of
carnage and devastation. A dreadful crash,
which I had just heard, as if the ship's
whole side had been stove in, was, I found,
occasioned by two marble shot of one
hundred and twenty pounds weight each,
which had struck the main–deck abreast
of the main–hatchway, knocked two ports
into one, and killed and wounded five
men. I saw Captain Bathurst coming
down the poop ladder, when a splinter
from the bulwarks carried away the tail
of his cocked–hat. He took it off, looked at
it, smiled, then came down on the quarter–deck
—the most exposed part of the ship—
and issued his orders with as much
calmness as if he had been only at gun
exercise,  while with his sword drawn he calmly
paced the deck, amid showers of shot and
splinters. The rigging was torn to pieces,
the yards lopped up and down, the lifts
were torn away, and the quarter–deck was
so strewn with splinters, that it looked
like a carpenter's shop. All at once the
captain looked up aloft, and said, "The
union–jack's shot away !" and instantly
sent me to Davy, the signal–man, to get
another. As I went up, I saw the Asia a
cable's length astern of us, and the admiral
standing on the poop–netting, hailing us,
"Genoa ahoy !" through a speaking–trumpet.
He wanted a boat from us with
a hawser, to swing his ship clear of a
Turkish fire–ship that was drifting down
upon him. I asked Davy for a union–jack,
and he drew out one from his breast, where
he had crammed it before the action, in
case it might be wanted. When I went
back to help my comrade with the hawser,
I found the hammock–netting, where I
had just stood, torn to pieces, and a poor
fellow lying on his face, dead, on the deck.
The captain, snatching the flag from Davy,
called out :

"Who'll go and nail the British union–jack
to the fore royal masthead?"

A good–looking fellow, named Neil,
stepped forward, took it, and began to
make the best of his way up the tattered
shrouds of the fore rigging. I looked up
soon afterwards and saw the cool
determined fellow clinging with his feet to the
royal mast, and hammering away with a
serving mallet. I and three other men
then got into the boat alongside, while two
others coiled in the hawser that the Asia
wanted. From the boat I had a fine view
of the fleet, and could see the two Turkish
line–of–battle ships, one on fire, but still
incessantly pounding at us. The Asia, at
this time, had only one large liner and a
double–bank frigate playing upon her.
When we had shoved off with the hawser,
we found the sea covered with wreck,
and drifting masts and yards, to which
hundreds of drowning wretches were
clinging; they called out to us imploringly
in Turkish. When we got six fathoms
from the Asia we found, to our disgust,
that the hawser would not reach: so one
of our men, George Finney, the captain of
our maintop, seeing there was only one
way, swam to the Asia, and dragged back
with him a hawser. They reached him
from the gun–room port, and we then
joined the two ropes with a Carrick bend.
As we pulled back to the Genoa, we saw
the admiral on the poop of the Asia
waving to us with his handkerchief to
make all speed. We had scarcely got half
way home, before the mizen of the Asia
went over the quarter with a crash. We
thought the admiral had gone with it;
but presently we saw him reappear in a
conspicuous position. On our way back,
we picked up ten poor drowning wretches.
As one of our sailors was hauling in one
tall young Moslem, a shot blew the
Turk's head to pieces. All the sailor did
was to turn coolly to us, and say, "Did
you ever see the like of that ?" But
the Turks were cooler even than this.
Finney, the man who swam with the
hawser, had just rescued a handsomely–
dressed Moslem, who was no sooner safe in
the bow of the boat than he pulled out
his pipe and tobacco bag, flint and steel,
and began calmly emitting volumes of
smoke. This irritated Finney. "Do you
see that Turkish rascal ?" he said, with an
oath. "If he cares so deuced little at being
saved from Old Nick, I'll send him where
he came from." So saying he made a
spring forward, and tumbled the astonished
Turk overboard before any one could
prevent him. The man, however, swam to a
piece of wreck, and was saved by a boat
from the Albion. The Turks were very
brave. The crew of the Alcyone picked
up a Turkish officer with a shattered arm.
When taken on board the Alcyone, he
walked proudly down the cockpit ladder,
just as if all the ship belonged to him,
and made signs to the surgeon that he
wanted his arm taken off. That being done,
the proud Turk threw himself overboard,
and swam back to his own vessel that was