344 NORTH SEA FISHERS AND FIGHTERS 



North Sea and they had struck shoals and gone to 

 pieces, men reckoning themselves lucky if they escaped 

 by means of boats or spars or were cast ashore. 



The loss of the Minotaur in particular had shown 

 the perils of winter navigation of the North Sea, and the 

 commander-in-chief of the Baltic Fleet had been ordered 

 not to delay the departure of the last homeward-bound 

 convoy beyond the ist of November. Accordingly, 

 Rear-Admiral Reynolds on that day sailed from Hano 

 with a convoy, flying his broad pendant in the St. George, 

 of which the captain was Daniel Oliver Guion. Heavy 

 gales, however, forced the admiral to put back three 

 times, and it was not until i2th November that he finally 

 left his anchorage. 



The flagship had begun a voyage which for suffering 

 and loss is almost unparalleled. Several of the merchant 

 ships foundered, unable to help themselves, and the 

 warships incapable of giving them assistance. During 

 the night of the I5th the wind grew to hurricane force, 

 and all hands in the St. George were called to give the 

 ship cable ; but before this could be done the seas drove 

 so heavily through the hawse-holes that everything that 

 was not thoroughly secured was swept away and the men 

 were unable to stand up to their duty. They were, how- 

 ever, still doing their best to veer away the cable when 

 a large merchantman of the convoy was hurled against 

 the St. George in the darkness. She struck the flagship 

 on the bows and severed her cables, then she was torn 

 away, and, to the accompaniment of an appalling chorus 

 of cries and shouts from drowning men, she sank, and all 

 her people perished. 



Men and gear were powerless in that storm and on 



