ling on the ocean, in all
the pride of perfect equipment and of glorious enterprise. The one was
an English frigate, the Alceste, having on board our ambassador to
China; the other was a French frigate, the Medusa, taking out the
suite of a governor for one of the colonies of France on the coast of
Africa. The importance of the mission on which each ship was
despatched, and the value of the freight, would seem to assure us that
the Alceste and the Medusa were officered and manned by the best crews
that could be selected. Two nations, rivals in science and
civilization, who had lately been contending for the empire of the
world, and in the course of that contest had exhibited the most heroic
examples of promptitude and courage, were nautically represented, we
may suppose, by the elite who walked the decks of the Alceste and the
Medusa. If any calamity should happen to either, it could not be
attributed to a failure of that brilliant gallantry, which the English
and French had equally displayed on the most trying occasions.

But a calamity of the most fearful nature did befal both, out of which
the Alceste's crew were delivered with life and honour untouched, when
that of the Medusa sank under a catastrophe, which has become a
proverb and a bye-word to mariners. Both ships were wrecked. For an
account of the good conduct, of the calm and resolute endurance, and
of the admirable discipline to which, under Providence, the
preservation of the crew of the Alceste is to be attributed, see pages
204-226 of this volume. A total relaxation of discipline, an absence
of all order, precaution, and presence of mind, and a contemptible
disregard of everything and of everybody but self, in the hour of
common danger, filled up the full measure of horrors poured out upon
the guilty crew of the Medusa. She struck on a sand-bank under
circumstances which admitted of the hope of saving all on board. The
shore was at no great distance, and the weather was not so boisterous
as to threaten the speedy destruction of the ship when the accident
first happened.

There were six boats of different dimensions available to take off a
portion of the passengers and crew: there was time and there was
opportunity for the construction of a raft to receive the remainder.
But the scene of confusion began among officers and men at the crisis,
when an ordinary exercise of forethought and composure would have been
the preservation of all. Every man was left t