NOVEMBER 205 



and not a mile from the place where Thurot's body had 

 been washed up in my great-great-grandfather's time. 



Those in the village who had viewed the boat as she 

 drifted past in a water-logged condition, with the sea 

 continually breaking over her, saw that there was a 

 man in her, but never imagined that he could have 

 survived exposure to such a storm. What was their 

 surprise, therefore, when the boat grounded on the 

 shingle, to see him rise, and to hear him speak. I am 

 told that the first words he said were ' Is there ony 

 person here can gie me claiths ? I had to put off my 

 coat to swim the lighter.' 



He was an immense man, a native of Campbeltown, 

 weighing twenty-two stone. In our doctor's opinion it 

 was his shield of fat that alone enabled him to survive 

 the long-drawn horrors of that night and day. 



If an excuse must be sought for including this bald 

 narrative in my memories of the month of November, 

 it may be found in the fact that, although no doubt the 

 fate of the Main and her crew lie duly recorded in some 

 pigeon-hole at the Admiralty, no public announcement 

 thereof was permitted at the time. 



Reverting for a moment to the action between the 

 squadrons of Elliot and Thurot, it is matter of lasting 

 regret that I have failed in all endeavour to recover the 

 words of a ballad recounting that adventure which, as 

 a lad, I heard an old fisherman at the Mull of Galloway 

 repeat. But the story lives among the descendants of 

 those who witnessed the fight. Certain flattened 

 globular nodules of iron pyrites which are occasionally 

 found on the beach, washed out of the Silurian shales 



