298 THE SEA. 



but certainly, at her age, should never have been allowed to leave Liverpool for Beaumari? 

 in weather so bad that an American vessel which had been towed out that day had been 

 compelled to return to port. She had been, it was said, at one time, condemned to be 

 broken up, but other counsels had prevailed, and she had been patched up and repaired for 

 continued service. 



At ten o'clock on Wednesday morning-, the 17th August, 1831, the vessel was 

 appointed to sail from the usual place, George's Pier-head, Liverpool; but there was a 

 casual delay at starting, and she did not leave till an hour later. She was freighted 

 heavily, and it was computed that hardly less than 150 persons (if the children carried 

 free were counted) were on board. A majority were holiday seekers ; the vessel was tricked 

 out with colours, and as the vessel left a band struck up its gayest music. Among the 

 pleasure parties on board was one from Bury, in Lancashire, consisting of twenty-six persons. 

 They set out in the morning, joyous with health and pleasant anticipations, and before the 

 next sun arose all of them, except two, had been swallowed up in the remorseless deep ! * 



The vessel proceeded very slowly on its course, making so little way that at three 

 o'clock in the afternoon she had not reached a floating light stationed about fifteen miles from 

 Liverpool. Arrived off the light, the sea was so rough that many of the passengers were 

 greatly alarmed, and one, who had his wife, five children, and servant on board, went down 

 to the captain and begged him to put back. The captain answered, with an oath, that he 

 thought there was " a deal of fear on board, and very little danger." The whole family 

 was among the lost. The vessel drifted out of her course, and proceeded so slowly that the 

 alarm on board became general. 



One of t'he survivors stated that the leakage was so great that the fireman found it 

 impossible to keep the fires up, two being actually extinguished, while the coals were so wet 

 that it was with difficulty the others were kept in. Yet there were no attempts made to 

 sound the well or ascertain what water was in the vessel. It was near twelve o'clock 

 when they arrived at the mouth of the Menai Strait, about five miles from Beaumaris, and 

 here her steam suddenly got so low that she drifted with the tide and wind towards the 

 Dutchman's Bank, on the spit of which she struck. Now came a time of awe and con- 

 sternation. The crowded boat rolled in a frightful manner, and the worst fears of the 

 passengers seemed to be on the point of realisation. The seas broke over her on eithe 

 side. The engine had previously stopped for about ten minutes, the coals being covered ii 

 water, and the pumps were choked. On her striking, the captain said, " It is only sand, 

 and she will soon float." Only sand ! More vessels have been lost on sands than ever 

 were on rocks. In the meantime he and some of the pasengers got the jib up. No doubt 

 he did this intending to wear her round, and bring her head to the southward, but it die 

 not, it proved, make the least difference which way her head was turned, as she was on a It 

 shore, and there was no steam to work her off. The captain also ordered the passengers first 

 to run aft, in the hope, by removing the pressure from the vessel's bow, to make her float.-] 



*The above account is principally derived from a "Narrative of the Loss of the Hothsay C'asfle," by Lieut 

 E. J. Morrison, R.K"., and other sources. 



fThe writer has seen nearly the same thing practised on the flat-bottomed stem-wheel steamers common 

 some parts of America, where, in shallow water, the passengers have been required to walk to the other side of t 



