WRECKS ON THE PURBECK COAST. 143 



the tragedy of the " Halsewell," or the serious drama of the 

 " Tyne." 



The Antiquary does well in treasuring what is in itself light, 

 because, in the march of time and the destruction of more im- 

 portant records, the trifle acquires weight. We shall do not less 

 well in attempting to sketch events of the day, no trifles in them- 

 selves, but which, amid the thousand accidents by flood and field 

 which our restless age of iron enterprise incurs, must needs owe 

 their chief interest in our eyes to the place of their occurrence. 



So far as I am aware the Coasts of Purbcck have not been so 

 much signalized by sea disasters as might have been expected. 

 The number of vessels that from the days of the Romans, if not 

 of the Phoenicians, have navigated the neighbouring waters must 

 have been always large ; and the frequent use of the highway 

 does not under such circumstances tend to its safety. The 

 rugged, hopeless inhospitality of the precipitous shore from 

 Peverel Point to St. Aldhelm's Head, and the more concealed 

 and treacherous danger of the Kimmeridge ledges, towards 

 which, it seems, a current, little known, sweeps fatally with the 

 ebb tide, might well have made Purbeck, exposed as it is to the 

 S. and S. W. gales, a name as well known to the underwriter as 

 to the geologist. But such does not appear to have been the case; 

 and the oratory of St. Aldhelm would not of late years have very 

 frequently resounded with vain supplications. Doubtless the 

 very danger of our embraces leads to their avoidance, and ge- 

 neraUy night and fog, coupled with the dangerous current to 

 which I have alluded, have been pleaded in excuse for the ap- 

 proaching of our shores. 



How decided is the set of the current was well illustrated by 

 the arrival, one can hardly call it the wreck, of an American 

 ship, the <'Robert^. Shaw," on December 10, 1847, She 

 was struck by lightning off Ushant, the cargo became ignited, 

 the crew escaped ; she, in a fresh S. W. gale, drove up the 

 Channel, one mass of fire, into West Bay, ( the western side of 

 the Chesil Bank,) near Weymouth; thence borne out by the 

 strong out-drafl she ran up, still a mass of flame, to St. Aid- 



