U2 



WRECKS ON THE PURBECK COAST. 



[ Read at the Grange, February lOtli, 1858. ] 



It may at first sight seem foreign to our purposes that papers 

 should be written, read, or printed such as that which is now 

 offered for the attention of our Society. But in attempting to 

 put on record a sHght sketch of some of the most remarkable 

 wrecks which have for a time before now invested our shores 

 with a transient notoriety, I believe that I am meeting the 

 wishes of many of our members, and think even that the subject 

 falls within our legitimate scope. The rareness of the occasions, 

 fortunately, on which such visitants as Mail Steamers of two 

 thousand tons throw themselves on our rocks and our hospitality, 

 might justify us in treating their advent as a subject of curiosity, 

 just as we investigate the visit of the Lesser Bustard or the Bot- 

 tle-headed Whale ; or again, excuse may be found in the ex- 

 amination of the geological character of the strata on which the 

 vessel may have lodged, the current which may have drifted her 

 to danger or destruction ; or furthei^ we may dwell sarcastically 

 on the deficiency of art which may have left a noble vessel for 

 weeks an apparent sacrifice to the waves, to be rescued at last, 

 a mere hull, from her marvellous position: or we may more 

 charitably narrate and laud the science which transferred the 

 "robur et ces triplex'' from the breast of the builder to the ribs of 

 the vessel, examine the advantage of iron over wood, and tell 

 the means by which the metal frame, beaten but not destroyed 

 by wind and waves, may have been lifted from her conspicuous 

 rock, and again sent to cross the mighty waters. 



I do not however claim attention on any scientific grounds, 

 real or assumed, but enter upon the subject as a matter of his- 

 tory. The interest which the antiquarian feels in the most trivial 

 details of a particular locality, cannot but be rightly extended to 



