202 THE SEA. 



at a time crying out for help, and thinking- to save their lives, and in the twinkling of an 

 eye were drowned ; I can give you no account, but of these four men-of-war aforesaid, 

 which I saw with my own eyes, and those hospital ships, at present, by reason the storm 

 hath drove us far distant from one another; Captain Crow, of our ship, believes we have 

 lost several more ships of war, by reason we see so few; we lie here in great danger, and 

 waiting for a north-easterly wind to bring us to Portsmouth, and it is our prayer to God 

 for it; for we know not how soon this storm may arise, and cut us all off, for it is a dismal 

 place to anchor in. I have not had my clothes off, nor a wink of sleep these four nights, 



and have got my death with cold almost. Yours to command, 



" ' MILES NORCLIFFE." ' * 



The following is also a characteristic letter from Captain Soanes of H.M.S. Dolphin, 

 then at Milford Haven, showing also how far the storm extended on our coasts : 



" SIR, Reading the advertisement in the Gazette of your intending to print the many 

 sad accidents in the late dreadful storm, induced me to let you know what this place felt, 

 though a very good harbour. Her Majesty's ships the Cumberland, Coventry, Loo, Hastings, 

 and Hector, being under my command, with the Rye, a cruiser on this station, and under 

 our convoy, about 130 merchant ships bound about land ; the 26th of November, at one in 

 the afternoon, the wind came at S. by E. a hard gale, between which and N.W. by W. it 

 came to a dreadful storm ; at three the next morning was the violentest of the weather, 

 when the Cumberland broke her sheet-anchor, the ship driving near this, and the Rye both 

 narrowly escaped carrying away; she drove very near the rocks, having but one anchor left, 

 but in a little time they slung a gun, with the broken anchor fast to it, which they let go, 

 and wonderfully preserved the ship from the shore. Guns firing from one ship or other 

 all the night for help, though 'twas impossible to assist each other, the sea was so high, and 

 the darkness of the night such, that we could not see where any one was, but by the flashes 

 of the guns ; when daylight appeared, it was a dismal sight to behold the ships driving up 

 and down, one foul of another, without masts, some sunk, and others upon the rocks, the 

 wind blowing so hard, with thunder, lightning, and rain, that on the deck a man could 

 not stand without holding. Some drove from Dale, where they were sheltered under 

 the land, and split in pieces, the men all drowned ; two others drove out of a creek, 

 one on the shore so high up was saved ; the other on the rocks in another creek, and bulged ; 

 an Irish ship that lay with a rock through her, was lifted by the sea clear away to the other 

 side of the creek on a safe place ; one ship forced ten miles up the river before she could be 

 stopped, and several strangely blown into holes, and on banks ; a ketch, of Pembroke, was 

 drove on the rocks, the two men and a boy in her had no boat to save their lives, but 

 in this great distress a boat which broke from another ship drove by them, without any in 

 her, the two men leaped into her and were saved, but the boy was drowned. A prize at 

 Pembroke was lifted on the bridge, whereon is a mill, which the water blew up, but the 

 vessel got off again; another vessel carried almost into the gateway which leads to the 



* A large part of the information incorporated above is derived from one of the least known of Defoe's works, 

 entitled, " The Storm : or, a Collection of the most Remarkable Casualties and Disasters which happened in 

 the Late Dreadful Tempest, both by Sea and Land." 



