THE SEA. 



came on deck; one at least of his little girls was seen afterwards in a state of pitiable 

 helplessness. Mr. Duckworth, of Bury, who survived the catastrophe, says that while 

 sustaining his wife he saw her on the quarter-deck. She was about ten years old. Each 

 wave that broke down on one side of the vessel hurled her along with impetuous force, and 

 dashed her against the gunwale on the other side ; and then it would recede, and draw her 

 back again, a ready victim for another similar shock. The poor innocent, bruised and half 

 choked with the waves, sent forth the most piteous cries for her father and mother between 

 each rush of the waters. Her shrieks were piercing beyond description, and she screamed "Oh! 

 won't you come to me, father ? Oh, mamma ! " &c., till the narrator says his heart yearned 

 to save her; and though he dared not quit his wife, he called to a fellow-passenger to 

 make the effort ; but he believes she was washed away soon afterwards. 



" A schooner, belonging to a nephew of Alderman Wright, was lying off Beaumaris Green ; 

 the persons on board heard the bell ring in the Rothsay Castle, but in consequence of no 

 light being displayed, which the captain refused to allow, they could not tell in what direction 

 to go to render assistance. They eventually saved several persons who had been seven hours 

 in the water. Such was the state of anxiety of the poor creatures, who had been so long 

 hanging to the wreck, that they imagined, when taken up at seven o'clock in the morning, 

 that it was noon/' 



Lieutenant Morrison speaks highly of the humanity and honesty of the Welshmen of the 

 coast on which the unfortunate vessel was wrecked, and contrasts their conduct with that 

 of the people of certain other places. He remembered, in the year 1816, witnessing the 

 wreck of a vessel near Appledore, in the Bay of Barnstaple, when the country people came 

 down in crowds to plunder the wreck, and they drove the poor seamen back into the surf 

 when they attempted to rescue a part of their property. In the winter of 1827 he recalled 

 the case of a crowd surrounding the mate of a Welsh sloop wrecked on the coast of Waterford, 

 whom they knocked down and robbed of a small bundle of clothes, all that he had saved 

 from the wreck. 



The wreck about to be described occurred in January, 1838, and has been recorded in 

 a graphic though somewhat verbose pamphlet,* which it is very unlikely has reached the 

 eyes of many of our readers. It has often struck the writer that the most fascinating and 

 interesting descriptions of wrecks have not been written by sailors, and there is a sufficient 

 reason for this. Many of the episodes which strike a landsman forcibly, and add greatly 

 to the picturesque ensemble of his narration, are taken by the seaman as mere matters of 

 course. Several of the more detailed and interesting narratives already given have been 

 taken from accounts recorded by the members of other professions, clergymen and military 

 men more particularly. The present account is compiled from the narrative furnished by a 

 medical man. 



The Killa/rney sailed from Cork on the 19th January of the above year, with about fifty 

 on board, passengers and crew. The weather was very severe, the wind blowing hard from 

 the east, accompanied by snow and hail squalls ; and the captain, after vain.y endeavouring 

 to make headway, turned the vessel round and returned to Cove Harbour. The weather 



* "Narrative of the Wreck of the Steamer Killarney," &c. By Baron Spolasco, M.D., &c., &c. 



