The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism Volume II Part 14

These Sands, so well known to, and feared by, the mariner, are ten miles in length, running in a north-east and south-west direction off the east coast of Kent. They are divided into two portions by a narrow channel, and parts are uncovered at low water. When the tide recedes, the sand is firm and safe, but when the sea permeates it, the ma.s.s becomes pulpy, treacherous, and constantly s.h.i.+fting. Three light-vessels (one seven miles from Ramsgate) mark the most dangerous points, and these are themselves exposed to a considerable amount of danger. The only advantage derived from the existence of the Sands is that they form a kind of breakwater, securing a safe anchorage in the roadsteads of the Downs. But if the wind blows strongly off sh.o.r.e, let the mariner beware!

The ancients thought that Britain was distinguished from all the world by unpa.s.sable seas and northern winds. The sh.o.r.es of Albion were dreadful to sailors, and our island was for a time regarded as the utmost bounds of the northern known land, beyond which none had ever sailed.

These dangerous Goodwin Sands, if we may believe the chronicles, and there seems no reason why we should not, consisted at one time of about 4,000 acres of low coast land, fenced from the sea by a wall. One tradition, not usually credited, ascribes their present state to the erection of the Tenterden Steeple, by which the funds which should have maintained the sea-wall were diverted. An old authority, Lambard, says, "Whatsoever old wives tell of Goodwyne, Earle of Kent, in tyme of Edward the Confessour, and his sandes, it appeareth by Hector Boetius, the Brittish chronicler, that theise sandes weare mayne land, and some tyme of the possession of Earl Goodwyne, and by a great inundation of the sea, they weare taken therefroe, at which tyme also much harme was done in Scotland and Flanders, by the same rage of the water." At the period of the Conquest, these lands were taken from Earl Goodwin and bestowed on the abbey of St.

Augustine, Canterbury, and some accounts say that the Abbot allowed the sea-wall to become dilapidated, and that in the year 1100 the waves rushed in and overwhelmed the whole. The inroads of the sea in many parts of the world would account for anything of the kind.

In dangerous or foggy weather, bells are constantly sounded from the light-s.h.i.+ps. A considerable amount of difficulty is experienced in finding proper anchorage for these vessels; and all efforts to establish a fixed beacon have been hitherto unsuccessful. In 1846 a lighthouse on piles _screwed_ into the sands(66) was erected, but it was carried away the following year by the force of the waves. As soon as a vessel is known to have been driven on the Goodwins, rockets are thrown up from the light-s.h.i.+ps, and as soon as recognised on sh.o.r.e a number of boatmen, known as "hovellers," all over that portion of the coast, immediately launch their boats, and make for the Sands, whatever may be the weather. The "hovellers" look upon the wreck itself as in part their property, and make a good deal of money at times, leading, as a rule, a thoroughly reckless sailor's life ash.o.r.e. But how many poor seamen have had cause to bless their bravery and intrepidity!

The great gale of 1703, one of the most terrible, if not absolutely _the_ most terrible which has ever visited our coasts, occasioned the loss of thirteen vessels of the Royal Navy, four on the Goodwin Sands, one in the Yarmouth Roads, one at the Nore, and the rest at various points on the coasts of England and Holland. The record, as preserved by the immortal author of "Robinson Crusoe," is terribly concise in its details. Take a part only of it. The italics are our own.

"_Reserve_, fourth-rate; 54 guns; 258 men. John Anderson, com. Lost in Yarmouth Roads. The captain, purser, master, chyrurgeon, clerk, and 16 men were ash.o.r.e; _the rest drowned_.

"_Northumberland_, third-rate; 70 guns; 253 men. James Greenway, com. Lost on Goodwin Sands. _All their men lost._

"_Restoration_, third-rate; 70 guns; 386 men. Fleetwood Emes, com. Lost on Goodwin Sands. _All their men lost._

"_Sterling Castle_, third-rate; 70 guns; 349 men. John Johnson, com. Lost on Goodwin Sands. Third lieutenant, chaplain, cook, chyrurgeon's mate, four marine captains, and 62 men saved.

"_Mary_, fourth-rate; 64 guns; 273 men. Rear-Admiral Beaumont, Edward Hopson, com. Lost on Goodwin Sands. _Only one man saved_, by swimming from wreck to wreck, and getting to the _Sterling Castle_; the captain ash.o.r.e, as also the purser." And so the sad story proceeds, Defoe adding that the loss of small vessels hired into the service, and tending the fleet, is not included, several such vessels, with soldiers on board, being driven to sea, and never heard of more.(67)

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREAT STORM IN THE DOWNS, 1703.]

A master on board a vessel which was blown "out of the Downs to Norway,"

describes the sights he saw on those fatal days, the 25th and 26th of November, in homely but graphic language. He says: "By four o'clock we miss'd the _Mary_ and the _Northumberland_, who rid not far from us, and found they were driven from their anchors; but what became of them, G.o.d knows. And soon after, a large man-of-war came driving down upon us, all her masts gone, and in a dreadful condition. We were in the utmost despair at this sight, for we saw no avoiding her coming thwart our haiser; she drove at last so near us, that I was just gowing to order the mate to cut away, when it pleas'd G.o.d the s.h.i.+p sheer'd contrary to our expectation to windward, and the man-of-war, which we found to be the _Sterling Castle_, drove clear of us, not two s.h.i.+ps' lengths, to leeward.

"It was a sight full of terrible particulars to see a s.h.i.+p of eighty guns (_sic_) and about six hundred men(68) in that dismal case. She had cut away all her masts; the men were all in the confusion of death and despair; she had neither anchor, nor cable, nor boat to help her, the sea breaking over her in a terrible manner, that sometimes she seem'd all under water. And they knew, as well as we that saw her, that they drove by the tempest directly for the Goodwin, where they could expect nothing but destruction. The cries of the men, and the firing their guns, one by one, every half minute for help, terrified us in such a manner, that I think we were half dead with the horror of it." The same writer describes the collision of two vessels, which he saw sink together, and several great s.h.i.+ps fast aground and beating to pieces. "One," says he, "we saw founder before our eyes, and all the people perish'd."

"We have," says Defoe, "an abundance of strange accounts from other parts, and particularly the following letter from the Downs, and though every circ.u.mstance in this letter is not literally true, as to the number of s.h.i.+ps or lives lost, and the style coa.r.s.e and sailor-like, yet I have inserted this letter, because it seems to describe the horror and consternation the poor sailors were in at that time; and because this is written from one who was as near an eye-witness as any could possibly be, and be safe.

"'SIR,-These lines I hope in G.o.d will find you in good health. We are all left here in a dismal condition, expecting every moment to be all drowned; for here is a great storm, and is very likely to continue. We have here the Rear-Admiral of the Blue in the s.h.i.+p called the _Mary_, a third-rate, the very next s.h.i.+p to ours, sunk, with Admiral Beaumont, and above 500 men drowned; the s.h.i.+p called the _Northumberland_, a third-rate, about 500 men, all sunk and drowned; the s.h.i.+p called the _Sterling Castle_, a third-rate, all sunk and drowned, above 500 souls; and the s.h.i.+p called the _Restoration_, a third-rate, all sunk and drowned. These s.h.i.+ps were all close by us, which I saw. These s.h.i.+ps fired their guns all night and day long, poor souls, for help, but the storm being so fierce and raging, could have none to save them. The s.h.i.+p called the _Shrewsbury_, that we are in, broke two anchors, and did run mighty fierce backwards, within sixty or eighty yards of the Sands, and as G.o.d Almighty would have it, we flung our sheet-anchor down, which is the biggest, and so stopt; here we all prayed G.o.d to forgive us our sins, and to save us, or else to receive us into his heavenly Kingdom. If our sheet-anchor had given way, we had been all drowned; but I humbly thank G.o.d, it was his gracious mercy that saved us. There's one, Captain Fanel's s.h.i.+p, three hospital s.h.i.+ps, all split, some sunk, and most of the men drowned.

"'There are above forty merchant s.h.i.+ps cast away and sunk; to see Admiral Beaumont, that was next us, and all the rest of his men, how they climbed up the main-mast, hundreds at a time crying out for help, and thinking to save their lives, and in the twinkling of an eye were drowned; I can give you no account, but of these four men-of-war aforesaid, which I saw with my own eyes, and those hospital s.h.i.+ps, at present, by reason the storm hath drove us far distant from one another; Captain Crow, of our s.h.i.+p, believes we have lost several more s.h.i.+ps of war, by reason we see so few; we lie here in great danger, and waiting for a north-easterly wind to bring us to Portsmouth, and it is our prayer to G.o.d for it; for we know not how soon this storm may arise, and cut us all off, for it is a dismal place to anchor in. I have not had my clothes off, nor a wink of sleep these four nights, and have got my death with cold almost.-Yours to command,

"'MILES NORCLIFFE.'"(69)

The following is also a characteristic letter from Captain Soanes of H.M.S. _Dolphin_, then at Milford Haven, showing also how far the storm extended on our coasts:-

"_Sir_,-Reading the advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Gazette_ of your intending to print the many sad accidents in the late dreadful storm, induced me to let you know what this place felt, though a very good harbour. Her Majesty's s.h.i.+ps the _c.u.mberland_, _Coventry_, _Loo_, _Hastings_, and _Hector_, being under my command, with the _Rye_, a cruiser on this station, and under our convoy, about 130 merchant s.h.i.+ps bound about land; the 26th of November, at one in the afternoon, the wind came at S. by E. a hard gale, between which and N.W. by W. it came to a dreadful storm; at three the next morning was the violentest of the weather, when the _c.u.mberland_ broke her sheet-anchor, the s.h.i.+p driving near this, and the _Rye_ both narrowly escap'd carrying away; she drove very near the rocks, having but one anchor left, but in a little time they slung a gun, with the broken anchor fast to it, which they let go, and wonderfully preserved the s.h.i.+p from the sh.o.r.e. Guns firing from one s.h.i.+p or other all the night for help, though 'twas impossible to a.s.sist each other, the sea was so high, and the darkness of the night such, that we could not see where any one was, but by the flashes of the guns; when daylight appeared, it was a dismal sight to behold the s.h.i.+ps driving up and down, one foul of another, without masts, some sunk, and others upon the rocks, the wind blowing so hard, with thunder, lightning, and rain, that on the deck a man could not stand without holding. Some drove from Dale, where they were sheltered under the land, and split in pieces, the men all drowned; two others drove out of a creek, one on the sh.o.r.e so high up was saved; the other on the rocks in another creek, and bulged; an Irish s.h.i.+p that lay with a rock through her, was lifted by the sea clear away to the other side of the creek on a safe place; one s.h.i.+p forced ten miles up the river before she could be stopped, and several strangely blown into holes, and on banks; a ketch, of Pembroke, was drove on the rocks, the two men and a boy in her had no boat to save their lives, but in this great distress a boat which broke from another s.h.i.+p drove by them, without any in her, the two men leaped into her and were saved, but the boy was drowned. A prize at Pembroke was lifted on the bridge, whereon is a mill, which the water blew up, but the vessel got off again; another vessel carried almost into the gateway which leads to the bridge, and is a road, the tide flowing several feet above the common course. The storm continued till the 27th, about three in the afternoon; that by computation nigh thirty merchant s.h.i.+ps and vessels without masts are lost, and what men are lost is not known; three s.h.i.+ps are missing, that we suppose men and all lost. None of her Majesty's s.h.i.+ps came to any harm; but the _c.u.mberland_ breaking her anchor in a storm which happen'd the 18th at night, lost another, which renders her incapable of proceeding with us till supplied. I saw several trees and houses which are blown down.-Your humble servant,

"JOS. SOANES."

The disasters caused by this terrible gale extended over the English coasts. At Bristol the tide filled the merchants' cellars, spoiling 1,000 hogsheads of sugar, 1,500 hogsheads of tobacco, and any quant.i.ty of other produce, the damage being estimated at 100,000. Eighty people were drowned in the marshes and river. Among the s.h.i.+pping casualties, the _Canterbury_ store-s.h.i.+p went ash.o.r.e, and twenty-five men were drowned from her. The Severn overflowed the country, doing great damage at Gloucester; and 15,000 sheep were drowned on the levels and marshes. Four merchant s.h.i.+ps were lost in Plymouth Roads, and most of the men were drowned. At Portsmouth a number of vessels were blown to sea, and some of them never heard of more. About a dozen s.h.i.+ps were driven from our coasts to Holland, the crews, for the most part, being saved. At Dunkirk, twenty-three or more vessels were dashed to pieces against the pier-head.

Mr. Peter Walls, master or chief lighthouse-keeper of the Spurn Light at the mouth of the Humber, was present on the 26th of November, the fatal night of the storm. He thought that his lighthouse must have been blown down, and the tempest made the fire in it burn so fiercely that "it melted down the iron bars, on which it laid, like lead," so that they were obliged when the fire was nearly extinguished to put in fresh bars, and re-kindle the fire, keeping it up till the morning dawn, when they found that some six or seven-and-twenty sail of s.h.i.+ps were driving helplessly about the Spurn Head, some having cut, and others broken their cables.

These were a part of two fleets then lying in the Humber, having put in there by stress of weather a day or two before. Three s.h.i.+ps were driven on an island called the Don. The first no sooner touched bottom than she completely capsized, turning keel up; strange to say, out of six men on board, only one was drowned, the other five being rescued by the boat of the second s.h.i.+p. They landed at the Spurn Lighthouse, where Mr. Walls got them good fires and all the comforts they needed. The second s.h.i.+p, having n.o.body on board, was driven to sea and never seen or heard of more. The third broke up, and next morning some coals that had been in her were all that was to be seen. Of the whole number of vessels in the Humber, few, if any, were saved.

Defoe estimates that 150 sea-going vessels of all sorts were lost in this terrific gale; but this is, in all probability, a very low estimate. And it is as nothing to the fearful loss of life, which amounted to 8,000 souls.

The townspeople of Deal, in particular, were blamed for their inhumanity in leaving many to their fate who could have been rescued. Boatmen went off to the sands for booty, some of whom would not listen to poor wretches who might have been saved. Many unfortunate s.h.i.+pwrecked persons could be seen, by the aid of gla.s.ses, walking on the Goodwin Sands in despairing postures, knowing that they would, as Defoe puts it, "be washed into another world" at the reflux of the tide. The Mayor of Deal, Mr. Thomas Powell, asked the Custom House officers to take out their boats and endeavour to save the lives of some of these unfortunates, but they utterly refused. The mayor then offered, from his own pocket, five s.h.i.+llings a head for all saved, and a number of fishermen and others volunteered, and succeeded in bringing 200 persons on sh.o.r.e, who would have been lost in half an hour afterwards. The Queen's agent for sick and wounded seamen would not furnish a penny for their lodging or food, and the good mayor supplied all of them with what they required. Several died, and he was compelled to bury them at his own expense; he furnished a large number with money to pay their way to London. He received no thanks from the Government of the day, but some long time after was re-imbursed the large sums he had expended.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE STORM IN THE THAMES AT WAPPING.]

"Nor," says Defoe, "can the damage suffered in the river of Thames be forgot. It was a strange sight to see all the s.h.i.+ps in the river blown away, the Pool was so clear, that, as I remember, not above four s.h.i.+ps were left between the upper part of Wapping and Ratcliffe Cross, for the tide being up at the time when the storm blew with the greatest violence, no anchors or landfast, no cables or moorings, would hold them, the chains which lay across the river for the mooring of s.h.i.+ps, all gave way.

"The s.h.i.+ps breaking loose thus, it must be a strange sight to see the hurry and confusion of it; and, as some s.h.i.+ps had n.o.body at all on board, and a great many had none but a man or boy just to look after the vessel, there was nothing to be done but to let every vessel drive whither and how she would.

"Those who know the reaches of the river, and how they lie, know well enough that the wind being at south-west-westerly, the vessels would naturally drive into the bite or bay from Ratcliffe Cross to Limehouse Hole, for that the river winding about again from thence towards the new dock at Deptford runs almost due south-west, so that the wind blew down one reach and up another, and the s.h.i.+ps must of necessity drive into the bottom of the angle between both.

"This was the case, and as the place is not large, and the number of s.h.i.+ps very great, the force of the wind had driven them so into one another, and laid them so upon one another, as it were in heaps, that I think a man may safely defy all the world to do the like.

"The author of this collection had the curiosity the next day to view the place, and to observe the posture they lay in, which nevertheless it is impossible to describe; there lay, by the best account he could take, few less than seven hundred sail of s.h.i.+ps, some very great ones, between Shadwell and Limehouse inclusive; the posture is not to be imagined but by them that saw it; some vessels lay heeling off with the bow of another s.h.i.+p over her waist, and the stern of another upon her forecastle; the boltsprits of some drove into the cabin-windows of others; some lay with their sterns tossed up so high that the tide flowed into their forecastles before they could come to rights; some lay so leaning upon others that the undermost vessels would sink before the other could float; the numbers of masts, boltsprits and yards split and broke, the staving the heads and sterns, and carved work, the tearing and destruction of rigging, and the squeezing of boats to pieces between the s.h.i.+ps, is not to be reckoned; but there was hardly a vessel to be seen that had not suffered some damage or other in one or all of these articles.

"There were several vessels sunk in this hurricane, but as they were generally light s.h.i.+ps the damage was chiefly to the vessels; but there were two s.h.i.+ps sunk with great quant.i.ty of goods on board: the _Russell_ galley was sunk at Limehouse, being a great part laden with bale goods for the Straits; and the _Sarah_ galley, laden for Leghorn, sunk at an anchor at Blackwall, and though she was afterwards weighed and brought on sh.o.r.e, yet her back was broken, or so otherwise disabled that she was never fit for the sea. There were several men drowned in these last two vessels, but we could never come to have the particular number.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE WEST-INDIAMEN DRIVEN ASh.o.r.e AT TILBURY FORT.]

"Near Gravesend several s.h.i.+ps drove on sh.o.r.e below Tilbury Fort, and among them five bound for the West Indies; but as the sh.o.r.e is oozy and soft, the vessels sat upright and easy." The loss of small craft in the river was enormous; not less than 300 s.h.i.+ps' boats and 500 wherries were sunk or dashed to pieces. Barges and lighters were sunk and broke loose by the score, and twenty-two watermen and others working on the river were drowned.

The effect of this tempest was felt very severely on sh.o.r.e, not less than 123 persons being killed by falling buildings, &c. It is said that not less than 800 dwellings were blown down, while barns, stacks of chimneys, pinnacles, steeples, and trees, were strewed all over the country.

Dozens of remarkable cases might be given of wonderful preservations at sea during this storm, and one or two have been cited. A small vessel ran on the rocks in Milford Haven and was fast breaking up, when an empty boat, which had got loose, drifted past so near the wreck that two men jumped into it and saved their lives. A poor boy on board could not jump so far, and was drowned. A poor sailor of Brighthelmston was taken off a wreck after he had hung by his hands and feet on the top of a mast for eight-and-forty hours, the sea raging so high that no boat durst approach him. A waterman in the river Thames, lying asleep in the cabin of a barge near Blackfriars, was driven below London Bridge, "and the barge went of herself into the Tower Dock, and lay safe on sh.o.r.e. The man never waked nor heard the storm till it was day; and, to his great astonishment, he found himself safe, as above." Two boys, lodging in the Poultry, and living in a top garret, were, by the fall of chimneys, which broke through the floors, carried quite to the bottom of the cellar, and received no hurt at all.

It has been shown how universal was the storm on the English coasts, and it extended to all parts of the interior.(70) In Norfolk, a small town experienced the horrors of fire simultaneously with the gale. The inhabitants were powerless to extinguish it; and the wind blew the ruins, almost as much as the fire, in all directions. If the people came to windward they were in danger of being blown into the flames, and to leeward they dared not approach the fire, which would have scorched them up. Those who escaped the conflagration ran the imminent risk of being knocked on the head by bricks and tiles, which flew about as though they were tinder. The storm, although most severe on the Friday before-mentioned, lasted almost continuously for a week.

The city of London was a strange spectacle at this time. "The houses looked like skeletons," says Defoe, "and an universal air of horror seemed to sit on the countenances of the people. All business seemed to be laid aside for the time, and people were generally intent upon getting help to repair their habitations." The streets lay covered with tiles and slates, bricks and chimney-pots. Common tiles rose from 21s. per thousand to 6.

Above 2,000 great stacks of chimneys were blown down in and about London, besides gable-ends and roofs by the score, and about twenty whole houses in the suburbs. In addition to those killed by the fall of various parts of buildings, above 200 were reported as wounded and maimed. And it must be remembered that these were not the days of morning and evening and special editions, and copious and generally correct reports. Had telegraphs and railways and steams.h.i.+ps brought in the news collected by innumerable correspondents, as they would to-day, Defoe's book would never have been compiled. And it may be here observed, in honour of the memory of that immortal author, that he never cites a case, or speaks of it as a positive fact, without giving his authority or authorities. He says in one place, "Some of our printed accounts give us larger and plainer accounts of the loss of lives than I will venture to affirm for truth: as of several houses near Moorfields levelled with the ground; fourteen people drowned in a wherry going to Gravesend and five in a wherry from Chelsea.

Not that it is not very probable to be true, but, as I resolve not to hand anything to posterity but what comes very well attested, I omit such relations as I have not extraordinary a.s.surance as to the fact." This is hardly the way with all book-makers!