According to the account written by his nephew (Pliny the Younger), Pliny the Elder was at the other side of the bay in Misenum when the eruption started. He travelled by galley ship across the bay, partly to observe the eruption more closely, and partly to rescue people from the coast near the volcano. Pliny died at Stabiae the following day, probably during the arrival of the sixth and largest pyroclastic surge of the eruption caused by the collapse of the eruption plume.