WRECKS ON THE PT7RBECK C0A8T. 265 



Eeceiver of "Wreck, the Collector of Customs at We3rinoutli. 

 The Captain did not succeed in returning to the scene of his 

 misfortune till tho 23rd, the Agent for the Insurers at an 

 earlier date. It is not very material to ns how the unfortunate 

 loss of time occurred; but it is too certain that the space of 

 time between the 20th and the 24th was xiM by any means so 

 fully employed in getting out tho cargo, as subsequent events 

 must have made all wish to have been the case. 



On the morning of the 25th the sea and wind were high, 

 and from the appearance of the ship, the waves breaking clean 

 over her — the masts swaying on opposite sides, and large por- 

 tions of her cargo being washed ashore, it was clear that she 

 must be rapidly breaking up. The fact of the beer and porter 

 casks, with cases of spirits, forming a part of that which came on 

 shore, did not lessen the necessity to adopt siicli measures as 

 could be adopted to keep order and avoid, so far as possible, 

 tho collection of unemployed people on the shore. In effect 

 on this and the succeeding day, no small quantity of good 

 liquor had to be given to the thirsty sand rather than be left 

 to afford in its unguarded state too irresistible a temptation to 

 the ''thii'sty souls" of Purbeck. At 6 p.m. the mainmast 

 went overboard — and when later at night, on tho receding of 

 the tide, the shore could be reached, the ship was found to 

 have been driven on near to the cliff, so as to be entirely high 

 and dry at low water — a complete wreck, with a large part of 

 tho bottom torn off and turned over at a distance on the shore, 

 while the galley was lodged at the very base of the cliff — the 

 stove still occupying its own place. From that time, each tide 

 effected more or less rapid destruction in the fabric, till com- 

 paratively little remained on the 9th of February to be offered 

 for public sale. 



With the moral reflections which that misfortune must 

 naturally have raised, I will not trouble the Society. Tliis 

 only I will observe, that from the specimen now afforded of the 

 inevitable unsettling, not to say demoralization, produced by 



