) We were all worried. Even the officers
began to think that the world was coming to an end. Mighty strange
things happen on the sea, but this topped them all.
"I kept to the bridge all night. When the first hour of morning came
the storm was still going on. We were all pretty much tired out by that
time, but there was no such thing as trying to sleep. The waves still
were batting us around and we didn't know whether we were one mile or
a thousand miles from shore. At 2 o'clock in the morning all the queer
goings on stopped just the way they began--all of a sudden. We lay to
until daylight; then we took our reckonings and started off again. We
were about 700 miles off Cape Henlopen.
"No, sir; you couldn't get me through a thing like that again for
$10,000. None of us was hurt, and the old Nordby herself pulled through
all right, but I'd sooner stay ashore than see waves without wind and
lightning without thunder."
FIERY STREAM CONTAINED POISONOUS GASES
Careful inspection showed that the fiery stream which so completely
destroyed St. Pierre must have been composed of poisonous gases, which
instantly suffocated every one who inhaled them, and of other gases
burning furiously, for nearly all the victims had their hands covering
their mouths, or were in some other attitude showing that they had
perished from suffocation.
It is believed that Mont Pelee threw off a great gasp of some
exceedingly heavy and noxious gas, something akin to firedamp, which
settled upon the city and rendered the inhabitants insensible.
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