ST. HELENA 249 



the sea that the roof of the wharf crane was destroyed, 

 while the two iron girders were snapped with the force of one 

 wave. The water must indeed be high even to reach the 

 platform on which the crane stands, therefore the roof was 

 considered quite out of danger. The damage done, al- 

 though considerable, seems hardly worthy of mention when 

 compared with that caused by the " rollers " of 1827, 1828, 

 and 1846 ; but as time goes on, one is apt to imagine the 

 accounts of them exaggerated, but that they are not so 

 may be drawn from the accounts given at that time in the 

 St. Helena Gazette, a paper published by the authority of 

 the Government. A heavy surf is reported in this paper at 

 Sandy Bay and along the windward coast as follows : 



On the 24th July, 1827, 8 a.m. the wind changed from the 

 S.E. or nearly so, and blew with considerable strength from the 

 S.W. By noon the sea was very rough and the surf higher than 

 before seen ; this continued until the 26th, when the wind again 

 shifted toward S.E. and the sea and surf gradually abated. During 

 its violence it threw on shore a fine fishing boat which had been 

 strongly moored and secured (the property of Capt. Wright and 

 Mrs. Seale). It was dashed in pieces near the western cullis. It 

 also bursted the door of the coal-hole (now in use many years), and 

 by this day's measurement I find has washed 272 bushels of coal 

 into the sea. It rendered the road lately made for a cart to and from 

 the shears impassible, indeed almost useless for that purpose^ So 

 high a surf is not in the remembrance of the oldest inhabitant or 

 foreman at Sandy Bay. It has totally changed the appearance of 

 the beach, and the spray ascended to Crown Point and Horse's 

 Head batteries, so as to run off in torrents. There was much 

 lightning about 10 o'clock at night with frequent and luminous 

 flashes accompanied by heavy rain, but no thunder could be heard. 

 The surf extended from South-west Point to Flagstaff and Barn 

 Point, gradually subsiding as it ran north. It rose very suddenly 

 at Lemon Valley and Egg Island on the 24th, continuing until the 

 26th. An account says : I left this place for Egg Island with 

 scarce a ruffle on the water, and by the time the boat got to Long- 

 ledge the swell rolled in very heavy ; and in going between the main 

 and the ledge the boat began to fill with every sea. The non-com- 

 missioned officer and myself thought it prudent to make the boatmen 

 pull back and go outside. The Lascars in the boat, for the safety 

 of themselves as well as for every one else, deemed it necessary 

 after bailing the boat to start the water out of one of the casks 

 and all the small kegs, and then with difficulty we landed. During 

 the two days the surf was so high here, it was low in James' Bay. It 

 appears to have extended all round the coast except the short space 

 between Bank's and Lemon Valley. 



