WRECKS ON THE PURBECK COAST. 147 



gale at south, and at this time the Portland lights were seen, 

 bearing N. N. W., distant four or five leagues. They then wore 

 the ship and got her head westward, but finding they lost ground 

 on that tack, they wore her again, and kept stretching eastward, 

 in the hope of weathering Peverel Point, and anchoring in 

 Studland Bay. At eleven p. m., the weather cleared, and they 

 saw St. Aldhelm's Head some mile and a half to the leeward. 

 Upon this they took in sail, and let go the small anchor. She 

 rode for an hour, but then drove. The sheet anchor then kept 

 her riding for about two hours, when she drove again. There 

 was now no hope of keeping her off the rocks, and about two 

 o'clock she struck violently. All rushed on deck ; the sailors, 

 of whose conduct the narrative does not speak in those terms 

 which sailors generally deserve, and the soldiers, whose activity 

 and discipline had been as conspicuous as has been the case on 

 numerous occasions of recent disaster. The officers and passengers 

 were mostly collected in the round house. 



Meanwhile, the ship continued to beat on the rocks, and fell 

 with her broadside against the shore. 



The spot is still known by the name of the ill fated vessel. 

 About four hundred yards to the west of the place where the 

 water drains, in flood, from the valley of Seacombe, and not dis- 

 tant from the grand ledges of Winspit, a quarry yet remains, 

 called the Hal se well Quarry. Its floor has much fallen in, but 

 at the time of which we are speaking, that floor overhung the 

 sea, and seems to have formed an arched roof to the cavern, 

 athwart which the vessel lay, broadside on. 



The sailors, soldiers, and oihers made their way in consider- 

 able numbers into the cavern from the rigging of the ship, and 

 by spars placed from the vessel ; but in justice to those who did 

 so escape, including as it would seem a large proportion of the 

 officers, it must be said that in the darkness they were unaware 

 of the comparative shelter which the cavern afforded, seeing as 

 they did from the vessel nothing but the bare precipices. 



Thus no doubt it occurred that no attempt was made to rescue 

 the women from their position in the round house. The sea 

 broke more and more heavily on the ship: two of the officers, 

 one of whom, by name Rogers, eventually survived, were washed 



