The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the
Bay of Biscay, by Duncan McGregor

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the Bay of Biscay
Narrated in a Letter to a Friend

Author: Duncan McGregor

Release Date: March 3, 2008 [EBook #24745]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOSS OF THE KENT ***

Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
Libraries.)

[Illustration: ESCAPING FROM THE BURNING SHIP.]

THE LOSS
OF THE
KENT EAST INDIAMAN
IN THE BAY OF BISCAY.

NARRATED IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND

BY

GENERAL SIR DUNCAN MACGREGOR, K.C.B.

_NEW EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS._

THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD;
AND 164, PICCADILLY.

* * * * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

The older I grow, and I am now in my 94th year, I am the more convinced
of the special interposition of Divine Providence in the winter
recorded, in the following Tract.

The Author

* * * * *

THE LOSS OF THE KENT EAST INDIAMAN.

MY DEAR E----,

You are aware that the _Kent_, Captain Henry Cobb, a fine new ship of
1,350 tons, bound to Bengal and China, left the Downs on the 19th of
February, with 20 officers, 344 soldiers, 43 women, and 66 children,
belonging to the 31st regiment; with 20 private passengers, and a crew
(including officers) of 148 men--in all, 641 persons on board.

The bustle attendant on a departure for India is calculated to subdue
the force of those deeply painful sensations to which few men can refuse
to yield, in the immediate prospect of a long and distant separation
from the land of their fondest and earliest recollections. With my
gallant shipmates, indeed, whose elasticity of spirits is remarkably
characteristic of the professions to which they belonged, hope appeared
greatly to predominate over sadness. Surrounded as they were by every
circumstance that could render their voyage propi