BOOKS.

LILLY'S SHIPWRECKS OF THE ROYAL NAVY.* WHETHER it be from something more loyal and chivalrous in the nature of "Jack," or from the necessities of his position " with but one-plank between him and destruction," or from " the, iron disci- pline" of the navy, certain it is that le sailor is more amenable to control than the soldier. Whenn-a city is carried by assault, we are told by all military authorities that it is necessary to abandon thePlace to the heroic assailants.; and the last war has:its tales of offiema shot lay.their own men,.sometimes for interfering with their excesses, sometimes out of pure wantonness. Let but a. reverse. happen, and it is also said by military authorities that the .bonds of discipline, especirdly in theBritish army, are.af once relaxed if not.a,Itogether broken, and each man does or tries to do what he thinks best for himself. Cutting out ships and boarding are surely equal to the dangers of the " imminent deadly breach," yet as soon' as the vessel is carried the sailor is calm and obedient to orders, and life and property are as safe with Mtn as on shore under the eyes, of the police. No terrestrial danger can to the imagina- tion equal that of a wreck, or still more that of a ship on fire, when the boats are insufficient to contain. the crew or are rendered useless. Yet in these terrible perils the British sailor is generally as cool and self-possessed as in a nautical review. Even when hope itself is all but over, and the order is given for each man to do the best he can for himself, courage and a clear perception still characterize him. Nay, when hope is gone and death seems in- evitable, and exertion past, he patiently struggles with the ele-

ments and coolly meets his fate. A narrative of the most fearful and remarkable shipwrecks

would form a work to which tragedy itself should yield the palm of terror and interest. Mr. Gilly's Shipwrecks in the Royal Navy is of necessity rather limited in its subjects, not merely from the author's own restriction as to time—from 1793 to 1849—but the strength of the ships, the number of hands, the seamanship of the officers, and the habits of discipline, render the wrecks of the royal navy less frequent, and perhaps.less terrible in their nature, than those of the mercantile marine—if anything connected with wreck can be other than terrible. The wrecks in the royal navy are, however, quite numerous enough. Upwards of four hundred ves- sels of various kinds have been lost in less than sixty years; and Mr. Oily has told the story .of thirty-seven at large. O these, some were smaller craft, selected for the horrors of their circumstances; others were men-of-war even of as high a rate as 74; and it is grievous to see how many were wrecked through de- fault. Ihrring the war, the Ministry kept the Baltic fleet em- ployed.on the station to a period absurdly late in the winter ; for if the season were so advanced as to raise misgivings in the minds of British officers as to the possibility of escaping shipwreck, we may be sure there was not much likelihood of the enemy's vessels putting to sea, when the inevitable dangers of the ocean were ag- gravated by ice, and its hardships by cold so severe as to freeze men dead upon the deck of a ship that had gone ashore. Some- times wreck occurred from the zeal of the commander to fulfil his mission, which induced him to push on during the night through little-known and intricate passages. Too often, however, it originated in false calculations, mostly in the difficult naviga- tion of the German Ocean, and which seem scarcely accounted for by the (then disregarded) local variations of the compass ; ves- sels were wrecked on the shoals of Holland when the pilot per- sisted they were off the coast of Great Britain. When we judge after the events, even fire seems as if it ought to be discovered in time to be got under by the available force and discipline of a ves- sel of war, if it could not be prevented altogether. One source of greater interest in the Queen's service is the supe- rior steadiness and discipline of the crew in danger—the self-devo- tion displayed when life itself appears at stake. Many noble ex- amples of the same kind occur in the mercantile marine ; and during the common risks attendant upon wreck as much coolness and hardihood may be shown as in the royal navy, unless the crew have been demoralized by incapable and worthless officers. As much patience and self-denial may possibly be displayed when the men are fairly off in the boats and there is nothing to do but to go through with it. As a rule, the superiority of discipline and duty in the navy, animated by the spirit of chivalry, is exhibited during those terrible moments when the sense of sudden and overwhelming danger disturbs the mind in the way which is called panic, or when the prospect of escape is so slender that sel- fishness usually swallows up every other feeling. The loss of the Hindostan, in 1804, is an example of what can be effected by dis- cipline and a sense of duty even when all seems hopeless. The Hindostan had been sent out with stores to Nelson while he was blockading Toulon, and carried some passengers : she was separated from her consort by a gale in the Gulf of Lyons ; on the 2d of April she was discovered to be on fire, and the most strenuous

exertions made to subdue it were without avail.

"About two o'clock in the afternoon, when they had been seven hours contending with the fire and smoke, land was discerned through the haze, on the weather-bow and it was supposed to be above Cape Creux.

" Captain LedrorAfoesaring the signals might fall into the enemy's hands,

hove them all ov rd. The sight of land gave a turn to the men's thoughts, and spurred them on to greater exertion. The fire rapidly inereas-

• Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy, between 1793 and 1849. Compiled principally from Official Documents in the Admiralty, by William 0. S. Gill y. With a Pre, by William Stephen Cilly, D.D., Vicar of Norham and Canon of Durham. Published by John W. Parker. ed • but ihe‘effortd of the captain and this noble crew -increased with the , dan.

"Again they attempted to clear the magazine; but the smoke rigain dreee the men from below, and rendered them powerless. Their courage weS; .in- deed, kept up by the eight of' land, though atilt five leagues distant ; but there was still much to be done—many perils vet surrounded them—and it was awful to feel that fire and water were contending for the mastery, and that they must be the viethus of one of-these elements., unless by the mercy of God the progress of the conflagration was stayed, and time allowed them to reach the distant shore. The tire was increasing fearfully; so much so, that Lieutenant Tailour deseribes the lower deck burning hike the ileum in an oven.' All communication •was cot off from the fore-part of the ship. Theft-times flew up the fore and smain hatchways as high us the lower yerda; but still the brave erew remained firm to their duty, and by keepine tar- paulins over the leatehewys, and pouring down water, they managed for time to keep the fire from taking serious hold abaft.

"But the crisis was fast approaching when human skill and human forti- tude- could be of no avail. In defiance of all their exertions and precautions, the devouring element pursued its course. Every moment it was gaining aft ; and had not officers and men been true to themselvesand to each other, they must all have perished. The mizenmast was on fire in the captain's cabin, and the flames were bursting from all the lee-ports. It was now a quarter past five o'clock, and they were entering. the Bay of Roses. Could they venture to hold on their way, and still remain in the ship ? A moment's glance around him sufficed for Captain Le Gros to decide the question. The now triumphant element was no longer smouldering and creeping stealthily onwards amidst smoke and darkness, but with a lurid glare and a sullen roar the flames rolled on. The word was given to launch the raft; it was obeyed, and in a few minutes more the vessel struck, about a mile from the beach, between the fort of Ampurius and the church of St. Pierre. She was now on fire both fore and aft. Self-preservation is the law of nature, it is said; but there is a stronger law governing the actions of the British seaman., Officers and men were of one mind. They all united in putting first the, women and children, then the sick and the foreigners into the launch. The two yawls and the jolly-boat took as many as they could carry from the stern, and put them onboard some Spanish boats from La Escada, which had been sent to their assistance, but which neither threats nor entreaties- could avail to bring near to the ship. "The remainder of the people were then ordered on to the raft ; and by the time it was covered, the flames came aft so thick that it was necessary to send it off from the stern. All now had left the ill-fated vessel, except the gallant Captain Le Gros., Lieutenant Tailour, and the master. When they saw all the rest clear away and not till then, did they descend by the; stern ladderi into one of the yauls, and pulled towards the shore ; which they had scarcely reached when she blew up."

The loss of the Magpie, in 18,26, was distinguished by circum- stances of remarkable horror, and by a panic, which, however die- estrous in its consequences, could only be expected. The Magpie was a small schooner, under the command of Lieutenant Edward, Smith ; and was sunk by a sudden hurricane in the West Indies, in spite of every precaution to .prepare for it. " At the moment of the vessel going down, a gunner's mate of the name of Meldrnm struck out and succeeded in reaching a pair of oars that were floating in the water ; to these he clung; and having divested himself of a part of his clothing, he awaited in dreadful anxiety the fate of his com- panions. " Not a sound met his ear; in vain his anxious gaze endeavoured fee pierce the gloom, but the darkness was too intense. Minutes appeared like. hours, and still the awful silence remained unbroken : he felt, and the thought was agony, that out of the twenty-four human beings who had se lately trod the deck of the schooner he alone was left. This terrible suspense became almost beyond the power of endurance ; and he already began to envy the fate of his companions, when he heard a voice at no great distance inquiring if there was any one near. He answered in the affirmative ; and pushing out in the direction from whence the sound proceeded, he reached a boat to which seven persons were clinging ; amongst whom was Lieutenant Smith, the commander of the sloop.

" So far this was a subject of congratulation ; ho was no longer alone: butyet the chances of his ultimate preservation were as distant as men

"The boat, which had been placed on the booms of the schooner, had for- tunately escaped clear of the sinking vessel, and if the men had waited pa- tiently, was large enough to have saved them all; but the suddenness of the calamity had deprived them of both thought and prudence. Several men had attempted to climb in on one side; the consequence was, the boat heeled over, became half filled with water, and then turned keel uppermost; and when Meldrum reached her, he found some stretched across the keel and others hanging on by the sides. " Matters could not last long in this way. ; and Mr. Smith, i seeing the im- possibility of any of the party being saved if they continued n their present position, endeavoured to bring them to reason by pointing out the absurdity of their conduct. To the honour of the men, they listened with the same respect to their commander as if they had been on board the schooner ; those on the keel immediately relinquished their hold, and succeeded with the as- sistance of their comrades in righting the boat. Two of their number got into her and commenced baling with their hats, whilst the others remained in the water, supporting themselves by the gunwales.

" Order being restored, their spirits began to revive, and they entertained hopes of escaping from their present peril : but this was of short duration; and the suffenngs which they had as yet endured were nothing in compari- son with what they had now to undergo.

" The two men had scarcely commenced baling when the cry was beard of A shark, a shark ! ' No words can describe the consternation which en- sued : it is well known the horror sailors have of these voracious animal, who seem apprized by instinct when their prey is at hand. All order was at an end ; the boat again capsized, and the men were left struggling in the waters. The general safety was neglected, and it was every man for him- self: no sooner had one got hold of the boat than he was pushed away by another, and in this fruitless contest more than one life was nearly samilleed. " Even in this terrible hour their commander remained cool and collected; his voice was still raised in words of encouragement, and as the dreaded enemy did not make its appearance, he again succeeded in persuading them to renew their efforts to clear the boat. The night had passed away—it was about ten o'clock on the morning of the 28th : the baling had progressed without interruption; a little more exertion and the boat would have been cleared, when again was heard the cry of The sharks, the sharks !' But this was no false alarm ; the boat a second time capsized, and the unhappymen were literally east amongst a shoal of these terrible monsters. " The men for a few minutes remained uninjured, but not untouched; for the sharks actually rubbed against their 'dame, and, to use the exact words of one of the survivors, frequently pasted over the boat and betireen its whilst resting on the gunwale.' This, however, didnot last long; a shriek soon told the fate of one of the men : a shark Lad seized him by the Jag; dyeing the water with his blood ; another shriek followed, and another mars disappeared. " But these facts are almost too horrible to dwell upon : human nature revolts from so terrible a picture; we will therefore hurry over this part of our tale. Smith had witnessed the sufferings of his followers with the deepest dis- tress; and although aware that in all probability he must soon share the same fate, he never for a moment appeared to think of himself. There were but six men left; and these he endeavoured to sustain by his example, cheer- ing them on to further exertions. They had once more recommenced their labours to clear out the boat, when one of his legs was seized by a shark. Even whilst suffering the most horrible torture he restrained the expression of his feelings, for fear of increasing the alarm of the men : but the powers of his endurance were doomed to be tried to the utmost ; another limb was saunched from his body, and uttering a deep groan, he was about to let go his hold, when he was seized by two of his men and placed in the stern-sheets.

" Yet when his whole frame was convulsed with agony, the energies of his mind remained as strong as ever; his own pain was disregarded, he thought only of the preservation of his crew. Calling to his side a lad of the name of Wilson, who appeared to be the strongest of the remaining few, he exhorted him, in the event of his surviving, to inform the Admiral that he was going to Cape Ontario in search of the pirate when the unfortunate accident occurred. Tell him,' he continued, that my men have done their duty, and that no blame is attached to them. I have but one favour to ask, and that is that he will promote Meldrum to be a gunner.' " He then shook each man by the hand and bade them farewell. By de- grees his strength began to fail, and at last became so exhausted that he was unable to veak. He remained in this state until the sunset, when another panic seized the men from a reappearance of the sharks ; the boat gave a lurch, and the gallant commander found an end to his sufferings in a watery grave."

We could extend these quotations by narratives of varied if not more awful dangers and sufferings; but these will suffice to indi- cate the matter to be found in Mr. Gully's unpretending volume. The book is not without the defects of the unpractised author, especially shown by interrupting the flow of his narrative with re- marks which when appropriate are obvious and could be made by the reader for himself : but it contains a number of spirit-stirring scenes, before which the interest of fiction pales, though they are purely matter of fact. Mr. Gilly's materials are drawn from in- formation thrown open to him at the Admiralty, or from sources equally authentic ; the rule of the British service, which puts the survivors on their trial when a ship is lost, accumulating a store of information not to be found in any analogous case.