SHELLEY'S YACHT THE ARIEL ' OR THE ' DON JUAN.'
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " EPECTATOR.1 do not remember to have read in any of the accounts of the drowning of Shelley anything about the subsequent history of the 'Don Juan '—renamed by Shelley the Ariel ' —after she was recovered by Trelawny fifteen miles from shore, two months subsequent to the accident. It may be of interest to some of your readers, and worthy, perhaps, of record in the columns of the Spectator, to state what became of her. She was bought under the name of the Don Juan' at Zante in 1827 from the captain of a brig trading from England to that island, by five officers of the English 51st Regiment then quartered there. They each subscribed fifty dollars towards the purchase, the yacht, which was seven tons burden, thus costing them about £50. Shelley, it may be remembered, had paid L80 for her to Captain Roberts, who built her. The officers used her for going across to Tornese Castle on the coast of the Morea opposite, and one of them took a month's cruise in her to the island of Calamos. Probably, therefore, she was quite seaworthy. She was wrecked by breaking from her moorings one night in a gale of wind, when she was cast ashore and smashed to pieces, a mishap due to the negligence of the man in charge of her—a private in the regiment, formerly a sailor, who had gone ashore on that very British errand, a drinking bout. I give these facts on the authority of a signed statement which I have, and which was made many years ago, at my request, by my father, who was an ensign in the 51st at Zante in 1827, and one of the part owners of the boat. He added that he thought he remembered an interview with Trelawny in his country house at Zante, before they made the purchase, on the subject of the ' Don Juan,' so it was doubt- less on his recommendation that they bought her.—I am, Sir, &c., ERNEST LAW. The Pavilion, Hampton Court Palace.
Previous page
