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flammable vapour might be attracted by the flame of the lamp and fired thereby.
At the time of the first, I believe, there might be more than sixty men upon deck, and some of them very near the mast at the very time of the clap. Some of these were stunned and beat down; and in their arms, where they thought themselves hurt, they had a numbness, which continued some time, but not any of them otherwise hurt. Luckily before the second, the men, who were upon the quarter deck, in number about twenty, had time to retire under the auning, which is a projection of the deck of the cabin to shelter from the sun or rain; so all escaped unhurt, though sufficiently frighted. And indeed the second flash was most terrible, as it was an explosion of a great number of balls, which went off after each other, cracking like shells, which continued for the space of half a minute; and from which there was no retiring, as the door of the cabin was shut; and I believe they might have set the ship on fire, but for the great rain, which had fallen immediately before this. After this time we were in no more danger this night, the thunder being all past the ship, less frequent, and not so loud, and removing by degrees to a greater distance: and by day-light, which is here a little after five, the sky was quite cleared; a fine day; and the wind returned to the S. E. quarter.
In these cases of thunder there is not any precaution taken farther, than stopping the upper part of the pumps, because they pierce all the decks even to the outside plank in the bottom of the ship. If at see, the sails are for the most part taken in; and
