LOSSES TO THE ROYAL NAVY. 199 



In dangerous or foggy weather, bells are constantly sounded from the light-ships. A 

 considerable amount of difficulty is experienced in finding proper anchorage for these vessels ; 

 and all efforts to establish a fixed beacon have been hitherto unsuccessful. In 1846 a light- 

 house on piles screwed into the sands* was erected, but it was carried away the following 

 year by the force of the waves. As soon as a vessel is known to have been driven on the 

 Goodwins, rockets are thrown up from the light-ships, and as soon as recognised on shore 

 n number of boatmen, known as " hovellers," all over that portion of the coast, immediately 

 launch their boats, and make for the Sands, whatever may be the weather. The ' ' hovellers " 

 look upon the wreck itself as in part their property, arid make a good deal of money at 

 times, leading, as a rule, a thoroughly reckless sailor's life ashore. But how many poor 

 seamen have had cause to bless their bravery and intrepidity ! 



The great gale of 1703, one of the most terrible, if not absolutely ike most terrible 

 which has ever visited our coasts, occasioned the loss of thirteen vessels of the Royal Navy, 

 four on the Goodwin Sands, one in the Yarmouth Roads, one at the Nore, and the rest at 

 various points on the coasts of England and Holland. The record, as preserved by the 

 immortal author of " Robinson Crusoe," is terribly concise in its details. Take a part 

 only of it. The italics are our own. 



"Reserve, fourth-rate; 54 guns; 258 men. John Anderson, com. Lost in Yarmouth 

 Roads. The captain, purser, master, chyrurgeon, clerk, and 16 men were ashore; the rest 

 drowned. 



"Northumberland, third-rate; 70 guns; 253 men. James Greenway, com. Lost on 

 Goodwin Sands. All their men, lost. 



" Restoration, third-rate ; 70 guns; 386 men. Fleetwood Ernes, com. Lost on Goodwin 

 Sands. All their men lost. 



"Sterling Castle, third-rate; 70 guns; 349 men. John Johnson, com. Lost on Goodwin 

 Sands. Third lieutenant, chaplain, cook, chyrurgeon's mate, four marine captains, and 62 

 men saved. 



"Mary, fourth-rate; 64 guns; 273 men. Rear- Admiral Beaumont, Edward Hopson, 

 com. Lost on Goodwin Sands. Only one man saved, by swimming from wreck to wreck, 

 and getting to the Sterling Castle; the captain ashore, as also the purser." And so the 

 sad story proceeds, Defoe adding that the loss of small vessels hired into the service, and 

 tending the fleet, is not included, several such vessels, with soldiers on board, being driven 

 to sea, and never heard of more.f 



A master on board a vessel which was blown " out of the Downs to Norway," describes 

 the sights he saw on those fatal days, the 25th and 26th of November, in homely but 

 graphic language. He says : " By four o'clock we miss'd the Mary and the Northumberland, 

 who rid not far from us, and found they were driven from their anchors; but what became 

 of them, God knows. And soon after, a large man-of-war came driving down upon us, all 

 her masts gone, and in a dreadful condition. We were in the utmost despair at this 



*As described in the latter chapter on the lighthouse. 



t This was the same gale which destroyed Winstanley's Eddystone Lighthouse, the first erected on the rock, 

 as already described. It is to he noted that Winstanley's house, at Littlebuiy, in Essex, 200 miles from the 

 lighthouse, fell down and was utterly destroyed in the same storm. 



