PERILS AT SEA.

NEVER is the discipline of regiments put to a severer trial than when a ship is on fire with troops on board. In the field, when the spirits of the men are cheered by the animating circumstances of the contest, honour being sure and death uncertain, it is natural to expect valour and good order; but, surrounded by the sea and devouring flames-dangers against which it seems almost hopeless to contend-with no mortal aid in sight, and passively to die is all that remains—it is such a scene as this that calls forth the manly resignation, the ready obedience, and the unfailing discipline-characteristics of a good soldier. These admirable qualities were displayed in the following instances, which cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind, as examples worthy of general imitation.

On Tuesday, the 1st of March, 1825, the "Kent," East Indiaman, with the right wing of the Thirty-first Regiment on board, took fire in the Bay of Biscay, and was totally destroyed; the accident occurred about ten o'clock A. M., towards the end of a violent gale of wind, when the ship was rolling heavily. One of the spirit-casks being adrift, an officer of the ship endeavoured to secure it with some billets of wood, but the ship making a heavy lurch, he unfortunately dropped the light, and letting go his hold of the cask

with a view to recover the lantern, it suddenly stove, and the spirits communicating with the lamp, the whole place was instantly in a blaze.

When there was no hope of saving the vessel, exertions were made to preserve the troops and crew. The noble example of the officers found a ready imitation in the men, and all showed the utmost order and firmness in this trying ordeal. The providential means of escape were afforded by the brig "Cambria," but it was not until three o'clock in the afternoon that Captain Cook succeeded in getting the first boat from the vessel. From that hour until eight in the evening, the boats were constantly employed in bringing the people to the "Cambria," and succeeded in saving 296 officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the Thirtyfirst Regiment, together with 46 women and 52 children belonging thereto, and 19 male and female private passengers, Captain Cobb and 139 of the crew, amounting in all to 553. Fifty-four men, one woman, and twenty-one children were lost, but the number would have been much greater had it not been for the excellent order observed. At two o'clock in the morning the "Kent" blew up, after being completely enveloped in flames for four hours previously. The crew of the ill-fated ship did not behave in the manner that is generally attributable to the British seaman, as they refused to return to the "Kent" for their shipmates after the first trip, and it was only by the coercive measures of Captain Cobb, who said he would not receive them on board unless they did so, that they reluctantly proceeded in their duty. Two hours after, the ship blew up, and a soldier's wife was delivered of a fine boy on board the "Cambria."

There were instances of men who tied the children of their brother soldiers on their backs, and leaping overboard swam with their burdens to the boats. Fourteen of the men who had remained on the wreck were rescued on the following morning by the "Caroline," and carried to Liverpool. In the Military Secretary's letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Fearon, commanding the Thirty-first Regiment, the thanks of his Royal Highness the Duke of York, Commanderin-chief, were expressed to him, for the example set by him and "for the persevering and gallant exertions which contributed so essentially to lessen the sad result of the catastrophe." The conduct of all was reported to his Majesty, who conferred on Lieutenant-Colonel Fearon the distinction of a Companion of the Bath.

Captain James Spence, one of the officers saved, afterwards commanded the regiment during the Sutlej campaign of 1845-46, being present at Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon. He appears to have had a charmed life, having escaped in a most astonishing manner. Two horses were killed under him; he received balls through his cap and scabbard, and had his sword broken in his hand by grapeshot; at Sobraon, a Sikh, who was lying apparently dead in the trenches, jumped up when the Colonel's head was turned, and rushed at him to cut him down, which was only prevented by a private, who called the attention of the Colonel to his danger, and subsequently bayoneted the Sikh, the Colonel's sword having broken in the encounter.

The following highly interesting report of the shipwreck of the "Abercrombie Robinson" transport,

in Table Bay, on the 28th of August, 1842, and subsequent disembarkation of the troops, under the command of Captain Bertie Gordon, Ninety-first Regiment, was not forwarded when the event occurred, otherwise it would doubtless have appeared in General Orders; for his Grace the Duke of Wellington declared that he had "never read anything so satisfactory as this report," and expressed a wish that he “had received this statement at an earlier period after this misfortune occurred."

"The reserve battalion of the Ninety-first Regiment arrived in Table Bay, on the 25th of August, 1842, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay.

"On the 27th of August the command of the battalion, and of the detachments embarked on board the Abercrombie Robinson' transport, devolved on Captain Bertie Gordon, of the Ninety-first Regiment, Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay and Major Ducat having landed on that day at Cape Town.

"The situation of the transport was considered a dangerous one from her size (being 1430 tons), and from the insufficient depth of water in which she had brought up. The port-captain, who boarded her on the evening of the 25th, advised the captain to take up another berth on the following day. This was impossible, for the wind blew strong into the bay from the quarter which is so much dreaded there, and had continued to increase in violence during the 26th, 27th, and 28th August.

"At eleven o'clock P.M., on the night of the 27th, it was blowing a strong gale, and the sea was rolling heavily into the bay. The ship was pitching much,

and she began to feel the ground; but she rode by two anchors, and much cable had been veered out the night before.

"Captain Gordon made such arrangements as he could, in warning the officers, the sergeant-major, and orderly non-commissioned officers to be in readiness.

“From sunset on the 27th, the gale had continued to increase, until at length it blew a tremendous hurricane; and at a little after three A.M., on the morning of the 28th, the starboard cable snapped in two; the other cable parted in two or three minutes afterwards, and away went the ship before the storm, her hull striking, with heavy crashes, against the ground as she drove towards the beach, three miles distant, under her lee.

"About this time the fury of the gale, which had never lessened, was rendered more terrible by one of the most awful storms of thunder and lightning that had ever been witnessed in Table Bay. While the force of the wind and sea was driving the ship into shoaler water, she rolled incessantly; and heaved over so much with the back-set of the surf, that to the possibility of her going to pieces before daylight, was added the probability of settling down to windward, when the decks must have inevitably filled, and every one of the seven hundred souls on board must have perished.

"While in this position, the heavy seas broke over her side and poured down the hatchways. The decks were opening in every direction, and the strong framework of the hull seemed compressed together, starting the beams from their places. The ship had been driven with her starboard-bow towards the beach,