Deviation of the Compass. 35 



instead of standing well to the westward, to compensate for the 

 deviation and the action of a north-westerly wind, steered the 

 direct compass-course for the Downs ; and having, in the night 

 of the 23d, separated from most of the convoy, she struck the 

 ground in a heavy squall of wind and sleet, upon the Haak 

 Sand, near the Texel Island. Some of the convoy which kept 

 by her shared the same fate ; but the greater part, aware, ap-« 

 parently, of the danger into which they were running, hauled 

 off to the westward and escaped. The Hero, after enduring 

 the violence of the concussions against the ground during the 

 night, was seen in the morning totally dismasted, and lying on 

 her beam ends. She soon went to pieces, and the state of the 

 weather preventing assistance reaching her, all the people, with 

 the exception of eight who were washed ashore, perished with 

 her.— iVamZ Chron, 1812, p. 43. 



Though thus stranded on the coast of Holland, the captain, 

 it appears, was so confident of his being sufficiently removed 

 from that shore, that when the ship was found to be in danger, 

 he ordered her to be steered to the S. or S. SE. (a course lead- 

 ing directly upon the sand), from the supposition that he was 

 upon some shoal on the British coast ! Surely a person entrusted 

 with the command of a line-of-battle ship, could not be so igno- 

 rant of the common rules of navigation as to fall into such a 

 disaster by a mere blunder, especially when different persons in 

 the ship must have kept a reckoning, and mutually secured them- 

 selves against such a chance of error. There was doubtless a 

 great want of prudence shewn by the Commodore, yet I imagine 

 that the deviation which he had, doubtless, neglected to take into 

 the account, had a great share in producing the catastrophe *. 



The St George and Defiance were circumstanced a little difFer- 



• A Mr White of Whitby, who was employed as a pilot on board of one of 

 the transports, being told on the fatal day of the accident, that the Commo- 

 dore had made the signal to steer S. S W., ordered his ship to be hauled up 

 W. S W., observing in the quaint language of a sailor, "If they stand that 

 way they will all sleep in their shoes before morning." This prediction was 

 awfully fulfilled, whilst Mr White, by his prudence, escaped. He knew no-. 

 thing of the local attraction of the compass, but he knew from experience, 

 that something carried the ship towards the Holland coast. This prudenrt; 

 sailor was afterwards, I understand, called up to the Admiralty to be exam-; 

 ined in respect to the cause of the disaster that had occurTod. 



