196 CALAMITY. 



Although I spent much of my leisure 

 with the friend I have already named, 

 I found time to entertain some of 

 my old acquaintances in the Navy, 

 among whom was one who was shortly 

 after my interview with him lost in the 

 " Defence," seventy-four, of which ship 

 he was lieutenant when she and the 

 "St. George," of ninety-eight guns, were 

 lost in the .Baltic, and all hands but 

 one boat's crew unfortunately perished. 



This was one of the most serious 

 calamities that occurred during the war, 

 and much blame was attributed to the 

 ministers of the Naval department, for 

 having kept such heavily armed vessels 

 there so late in the season, when navi- 

 gation in those boisterous seas becomes 

 doubly perilous. But the only sacrifice 

 made to the public voice, which was loud 

 in its denouncement of such an error in 

 judgment, if it was not an act of palpable 



