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I went to anchorage between 7 and 8 and had hardly moored when the side of the volcano opened out with a terrible explosion. A wall of fire swept over the town and the bay. The Roddam was struck broadside by the burning mass. The shock to the ship was terrible, nearly capsizing her.

Out of eighteen vessels lying in the roads only one, the British steamship Roddam, escaped, and she, I hear, lost more than half on board. It was a dying crew that took her out. "Our boat, the Roraima, of the Quebec Line, arrived at St. Pierre early Thursday morning. For hours before we entered the roadstead we could see flames and smoke rising from Mont Pelee.

We gained intelligence, however, from a French despatch vessel which we captured, that the enemy's squadron had lately been increased by four other ships, one of which, by-the-by, was a ship of ours the Greenwich of fifty guns, captured a few months ago, when commanded by Captain Roddam, off this very island.

The body was horribly burned and the sailor had evidently crept in there in his agony to die. "On the arrival of the Roddam at St. Lucia the ship presented an appalling appearance. Dead and calcined bodies lay about the deck, which was also crowded with injured helpless and suffering people.

"Let me add that, after the first shock was over, the survivors of the crew rendered willing help to navigate the ship to this port. Mr. Plissoneau, our agent in Martinique, happening to be on board, was saved, and I really believe that he is the only survivor of St. Pierre. As it is, he is seriously burned on the hands and face. "Master British Steamship Roddam."

Out of a total of twenty-three on board the Roddam, which includes the captain and the crew, ten are dead and several are in the hospital. My first and second mates, my chief engineer and my supercargo, Campbell by name, were killed. The ship was covered from stem to stern with tons of powdered lava, which retained its heat for hours after it had fallen.

The British steamer Etona, of the Norton Line, stopped at St. Lucia to coal on May 10th. Captain Cantell there visited the Roddam and had an interview with Captain Freeman. On the 11th the Elona put to sea again, passing St. Pierre in the afternoon. We subjoin her captain's story: "The weather was clear and we had a fine view, but the old outlines of St. Pierre were not recognizable.

The steamer Roddam, of which I am captain, left St. Lucia at midnight of May 7, and was off St. Pierre, Martinique, at 6 o'clock on the morning of the 8th. I noticed that the volcano, Mont Pelee, was smoking, and crept slowly in toward the bay, finding there among others the steamer Roraima, the telegraph repairing steamer Grappler and four sailing vessels.

The Tisiphone having been fitted out at Sheerness, and the complement of men having been filled up by supernumeraries from the Conquestadore at the Nore, Captain Saumarez, by order from Admiral Roddam, placed himself under the command of Captain Allen, of the Sceptre, on the 6th September 1781, from whom he received the following order: You are hereby required and directed to put yourself under my command, and to follow all such orders and directions as you shall from time to time receive from me for his Majesty's service, and to hold yourself in constant readiness to sail at a moment's warning; and in case of separation by any unavoidable accident, you are to make the best of your way without loss of time to Torbay, and put yourself under the command of Admiral Darby.

The state of the ship was enough to show that those on board must have undergone an awful experience. "The Roddam was covered with a mass of fine bluish gray dust or ashes of cement-like appearance. In some parts it lay two feet deep on the decks.