Tho' now full oft they felt the raging tide
In proud rebellion climb the veffel's fide,
No future is unknown their fouls appal;
They know no danger, or they fcorn it all!
But e'en the generous fpirits of the brave,
Subdu'd by toil, a friendly refpite crave;
A fhort repofe alone their thoughts implore,
Their harrafs'd powers by flumber to reflore.
Far other cares the mafter's mind employ;
Approaching perils all his hopes deftroy.
In vain he fpreads the graduated chart,
And bounds the diflance by the rules of art;
In vain athwart the mimic feas expands
The compaffes to circumjacent lands.
Ungrateful talk! for no afylum trac'd,
A paffage open'd from the wat'ry wafle:
Fate feem to guard with adamantine mound,
The path to every friendly port around.
While Albert thus, with fecret doubts difmay'd,
The geometric diftances furvey'd,
On deck the watchful Rodmond cries aloud,
Secure your lives, grafp every man a fhroud!
Rous'd from his trance he mounts with
eyes aghaft
When o'er the fhip in undulation vast,
A giant furge down rufhes from on high,
And fore and aft diffever'd ruins lie.
As when, Britannia's empire to maintain,
Great Hawke defcends in thunder on the main ;
Around the brazen voice of battle roars,
And fatal lightnings blaft the hoftile fhores;
Beneath the form their fhatter'd navies groan,
The trembling deeps recoil from zone to zone;
Thus the torn veffel felt th' enormous ftroke;
The boats beneath the thundering deluge broke;
Forth ftarted from their planks the burling rings,
Th' extended cordage all afunder fprings.
The pilot's fair machinery firews the deck,
And cards and needles fwim in floating wreck.
The balanc'd mizen rending to the head,
In ftreaming ruins from the margin fled.
The fides convulfive fhook on groaning beams,
And rent with labour yawn'd the pitchy feams,
They found the well *; and, terrible to hear,
Five feet immers'd along the line appear!
At either pump they ply the clanking braket,
And turn by turn th' ungrateful office take,
Rodmond, Arion, and Palemon, here,
At this fad tafk all diligent appear:
As fome fair caflle, fhook by rude alarms,
Oppofes long th' approach of hoftile arms;
Grim war around her plants his black array,
And death and forrow mark his horrid way:
Till in fome deftin'd hour, against her wall,
In tenfold rage the fatal thunders fall;
The ramparts crack, the folid bulwarks rend
And hoftile troops the fhatter'd breach afcend
Her valiant inmates fill the foe retard,
Refolv'd till death their facred charge to guard
So the brave mariners their pumps attend,
And help inceffant, by rotation, lend;
But all in vain-for now the founding cord
Updrawn, an undiminifh'd depth explor'd.
Nor this fevere diftrefs is found alone;
The ribs oppreft by pond'rous cannon groan-
Deep rolling from the wat'ry volume's height,
The tortur'd fides feem buriting with their weight.
So reels Pelorus, with convulfive throes,
When in his veins the burning earthquake glows.
*The well is an apartment in the fhip's hold, ferving to enclose the pumps. It is founded by dropping a meafured iron rod down into it by a long line. Hence the increafe or diminution of the leaks are easily discovered.
+ The brake is the lever or handle of the pump, by which it is wrought.
Hoarfe thro' his entrails roars th' infernal flame,
And central thunders rend his groaning frame→→
Accumulated mifchiefs thus arife,
And fate vindictive all their kill defies,
One only remedy the feafon gave;
To plunge the nerves of battle in the wave:
From their high platforms thus th' artillery thrown,
Eas'd of their load the timbers lefs fhall groan.
But arduous is the talk their lot requires;
A tafk that hovering Fate alone infpires!
For, while intent the yawning decks to eafe.
That ever and anon are drench'd with feas,
Some fatal billow, with recoiling fweep.
May whirl the helplefs wretches in the deep.
No feafon this for council or delay!
Too foon the eventful moments hafte away
Here perfeverance, with each help of art,
Muft join the boldeft efforts of the heart.
Thefe only now their mifery can relieve;
Thefe only now a dawn of fafety give!→
While o'er the quiv'ring deck, from van to rear,
Broad furges roll in terrible career,
Rodmond, Arion, and a chofen crew,
This office in the face of death purfue,
The wheel'd artillery o'er the deck to guide,
Rodmond, defcending, claim'd the weather fide,
Fearless of heart the chief his orders gave ;
Fronting the rude affaults of every wave.
Like fome ftrong watch-tower nodding o'er the deep,
Whofe rocky bafe the foaming waters fweep,
Untam'd he flood; the ftern aerial war
Had mark'd his honeft face w th many a fear-
Meanwhile Arion, traverfing the waift*;
The cordage of the lecward guns unbrac'd,
And pointed crows beneath the metal plac'd.
Vol. V. 19.
* The waift of a ship of this kind is an hollow fpace, of
Watching the roll, their forelocks they withdrew, T
And from their beds the reeling cannon drew.
Then, from the windward battlements unbound,
Rodmond's affociates wheel th' artillery round,
Pointed with iron fangs, their bars beguile
The pond'rous arms across the ftecp defile:
Then, hurl'd from founding hinges o'er the fide,
Thundring they plunge into the flathing tide.
The fhip thus eas'd fome little refpite finds,
In this rude conflict of the feas and winds
Such eafe Alcides felt, when, clogg'd with gore,
Th'envenom'd mantle from his fide he tore :
When, flung with burning pain, he frove, too late, I
To flop the fwift career of cruel fate.
Yet then his heart one ray of hope procur'd,
Sad harbinger of feven-fold pangs endur'd!
Such, and fo fhort, the panfe of woe the found!
Cimmerian darknefs fhades the deeps around,
Save when the lightnings gleaming on the fight,
Flafh thro' the gloom a pale, difallrous light.
Above, all æther fraught with fcenes of woe,
With grim deftruction threatens all below.
Beneath the ftorm lafh'd furges furious rife, dead
And wave uproll'd on wave affails the fkies; W
With ever-floating bulwarks they furround
The fhip, halffwallow'd in the black profound
With ceafelefs hazard and fatigue opprefl,
Difmay and anguifh every heart posseft;
For, while with boundless inundation o'er
The fea-beat fhip th'involving waters roar,
Difplac'd beneath, by her capacious womb,
They rage their ancient flation to refume ;
By fecret ambushes, their force to prove,
Thro' many a winding channel firft they rove
about five feet in depth. contained between the elevations of the quarter-deck and forecallie, and having the upper deck for its bafe or platforin,
Till, geting fury, like the fever'd blood,
Thro' her dark veins they roll a rapid flood.
While unrelenting thus the leaks they found,
The pumps with ever clanking ftrokes refound.
Around each leaping valve, by toil fubdu'd,
The tough bull-hide mufl ever be renew'd,
Their finking hearts unufual horrors chill:
And down their weary limbs thick dews diftil.
No ray of light their dying hope redeems!,
Pregnant with fome new woe each moment teems hin
Again the chief th' inffruétive draught extends,
And o'er the figur'd plane attentive bends;
To hin the motion of each orb was known,
That wheels around the fun's refulgent throne:
But here, a'as his fcience nought avails!
Art drops unequal, and experience fails.
The different traverfes fince twilight made,
He on the hydrographic circle la d;
Then the broad angle of the lee-way* explord,
As fwept acrofs the graduated chord,
Her place difcover'd by the rules of art,
Unufual terrors fhook the mafler's heart;
When Falconera's rugged,ile he found
Within her drift, with fhelves and breakers bound,
For if on thofe deftructive fhallows toft,
The helpless bark with all her crew are loft:
As fatal fill appears, that danger o'er,
The fleep St. George and rocky Gardalor.
With him the pilots of their hopeless ftate
In mournful confultation now debate.
Not more perplexing doubts her chiefs appal,
When fome proud city verges to her fall;
The lee-way, or drift, which, in this place, are fymn-. nimous terms, is the movement by which a fhip is driven fideways at the mercy of the wind and fea, when the is deprived of the government of the fails and helm.
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