240 THE SEA. 



and plundered corpse presented itself to his view. What to do Captain Chilcot was at 

 a loss. Providence, however, conducted him to the roof of a venerable pair, who 

 bestowed upon him every assistance. The captain's wife, it seems, at the time the ship 

 went to pieces, had two bank bills of a considerable value and seventy guineas in her 

 pocket. At the Summer Assizes at Salop, Roberts and Parry, two of the above-named, were 

 found guilty of plundering the Charming Jenny, but their counsel pleading an arrest of 

 judgment, sentence was suspended. Eventually one was executed, and one had his sentence 

 commuted. 



On the 7th September, 1782, one John Webb was executed at Hereford for having 

 plundered a Venetian vessel drawn on shore on the coast of Glamorganshire by stress 

 of weather. No mention is made of hurting or molesting the crew, and it is evident 

 that the laws were, about this time, stringently carried out. "This," said the Annual 

 Register, " it is hoped, will put a final stop to that inhuman practice of plundering ships 

 wrecked upon the coast." 



Next follows an example in the present century: " Jany. 8, 1811. Another daring 

 attempt (says the Register] was made by a party of country-people at Clonderalaw 

 Bay to take possession of the American ship Romulus on this day. They assembled 

 at about ten in the evening, to the amount of about two or three hundred, and com- 

 menced a firing of musketry, which they kept up at intervals for three hours ; when, 

 finding a steady resistance from the crew, and guard of yeomanry which had been put on 

 the vessel on her first going on shore, they retired. The shot they fired appeared to 

 be cut from square bars of lead, about half an inch in diameter. One of these miscreants 

 dropped, and was carried away by his companions." 



The following is an extract from a letter: " On Friday, the 27th of October, 1811, 

 the galliot Anna Hulk Klas Boyr, Meinerty master, from Christian Sound, laden with 

 deals, for Killalu, was driven on shore at a place called Porturlin, between Killalu and 

 Broadhaven. The captain and crew providentially saved their lives by jumping on shore 

 on a small island or rock. At this time the stern and quarter were stove in. The 

 crew remained two hours on the rock, when' they were taken off by a boat and brought 

 to the mainland. Shortly after, the captain's trunk, with all the sailors' clothes in general, 

 came on shore, when the country-people immediately began to plunder, leaving the unfor- 

 tunate sufferers nothing but what they had on their backs. The plunderers repaired to 

 the wreck, and cut away everything they could come at of the sails, rigging, &c., while 

 hundreds were taking away the deals to all parts of the country. Though the captain 

 spoke good English, and most pitifully inquired to whom he might apply for assistance, 

 yet he could not hear of any for fourteen hours, when he was told that Major Denis 

 Bingham was the nearest and only person he could apply to. With much difficulty he 

 procured a guide, and proceeded to Mr. Bingham's, a distance of twenty miles through 

 the mountains. In the meantime, after thirty-six hours' concealment of this very melan- 

 choly circumstance, Captain Morris, of the Townsliencl cruiser, who lay at Broadhaven, a 

 distance of about ten miles from the wreck, heard of it, and, approaching it, landed with 

 twenty men, well armed. In coming near the wreck he first fired in the air, in order to 

 disperse the peasantry, which had no effect; he therefore ordered his men to fire close, 



