ten o'clock
Rescuers were soon on their way . Twenty-three minutes after the clouds had been seen rising from Mont Pelée and the cable and telephone lines were broken , a little steamer left Fort-de-France , the capital . It reached half-way , then , finding that the rain of stones and ashes threatened to sink it , returned . The boat started anew at ten o'clock and rounded the point of Carbet . The volcano was shrouded in smoke and ashes . For three miles the coast was in flames . Seventeen vessels in the roadstead , two of which were American steamers , burned at anchor .