Sad and disastrous as were the effects of the blizzard on land on the night of Monday, March 9th, they were in most cases of a nature more or less reparable. At sea, however, the case was different, and from the afternoon of the day on which the storm commenced to the end of the week wrecks, resulting in the loss of over fifty lives, were strewn along the coast from Start Point to Falmouth. In most cases, such was the fury of the gale, but little help could be afforded from the shore. Generally, to launch a boat or to use a rocket apparatus was out of the question, and those on the shore, anxious to send help to the doomed vessels, had great difficulty in escaping from being blown into the sea. In many instances gallant services were rendered, and all that courage and self-sacrifice could do with the hope of saving life was accomplished; but the time was one of no common peril, and on the Tuesday lives were lost in full view of the cliffs upon the rocky fringes of which the vessels had been driven.

In Plymouth Sound, and the Hamoaze, well protected as they are from the gales of winter, much damage was done on Monday night. In addition to the accident to the Lion and Implacable, and the critical position of the Queen's harbour-master's cutter already briefly described, the Julia, a small coastguard cutter, moored inside Drake's Island, parted her moorings during the early hours of Tuesday morning, and went ashore on Bottle Nose, a point eastward of Devil's Point. She was badly knocked about, but there were no men on board at the time. Whilst the heavy squalls were on Tuesday morning the Impregnable, training-ship for boys, Captain Harris; the Cambridge, gunnery school ship, Captain Carr, and the Achilles, battle ship, all dragged their moorings, but not to any alarming extent. Staff-Captain Burniston, who, with the dockyard tugs under his command, was afloat during the whole of Monday night, and on Tuesday, under very trying circumstances, succeeded in getting out fresh anchors and hawsers to make the vessels secure for the night, a course which was wisely adopted, as the hurricane showed no signs of abating, there being, on the contrary, another great fall in the barometer. The men who were on board the tugs on Monday night, speak of the weather as being the worst that they ever experienced, and the manner in which they did their work under such trying circumstances was, as was the case so frequently throughout that, and several succeeding days, most praiseworthy.

Considerable damage was done during Monday night to many of the hookers belonging to the fishermen of Kingsand and Cawsand. The full force of the blizzard was experienced in Cawsand Bay, and ten of the hookers which had been moored up for the night were driven ashore and sunk. The only boat which rode out the storm was a craft owned by Mr. Andrews of Cawsand. A pilot boat went ashore in one of the little coves just south of the coastguard station, and a small fishing vessel was wrecked close under Lady Emma's Cottage, at Mount Edgcumbe.

The captain of the Norwegian galliot Falken, from Shields, with coal for Portugal which was found on Tuesday off Fowey, by the tug Belle of Plymouth, half full of water, and with her sails blown away, stated at the time that on Monday his vessel was caught in a kind of small cyclone, and that whilst about twenty miles south-west of Start Point he had a strange experience. The vessel was being driven along at a furious rate by a north-easterly gale, whilst ahead, within sight, a westerly wind was blowing. This bears out the theory of the cyclone to some extent, as on other parts of the coast the gale was found to blow only from the north-east or south-east, in rapid changes. The Channel was very rough at the time, and the vessel was greatly endangered. On Tuesday the boats were smashed, and the sails carried away. Pumps were manned, and kept working so long as the crew could hold out, the endeavour being to reach one of the ports. It was while the Falken was in this condition that the Belle came opportunely to her assistance, and towed her into Plymouth harbour, where she was laid up alongside Bulteel's Wharf, in the Cattewater, to discharge her cargo and be repaired. Several of the Lowestoft boats, and other fishing vessels which had been out in the Channel on the Monday night, returned to Plymouth on Tuesday, and reported having experienced very bad weather. The sudden squalls encountered were terrific, and the oldest fishermen on board declared that they had never experienced such violent weather on the Devonshire coast.

During the height of the storm the schooner Alice Brookall, from Swansea to Jersey with coals, ran ashore at Mutton Cove, near Godevy Hayle. She ran so far in that the crew—five in number—managed to drop from the bowsprit on to the rocks. The poor fellows had to pass the night exposed to the fury of the storm, with no other protection than they could mutually afford each other by huddling together. At daybreak they climbed the cliffs, and managed to reach the shelter of a farm-house. The vessel soon went to pieces. The schooner Perseverance, of Preston, Dandy, master, from Swansea to Salcombe, with coals, ran ashore a mile east of Hayle Bar. The crew of four remained by her during the night, and landed at daybreak. Both vessels experienced fearful weather on the way down Channel, the sea running mountains high. No one knew of their position until twenty-four hours after they struck.

At Exmouth, Dawlish, and Teignmouth, although the force of the wind was great, and all three towns sustained damage, there were no calamities at sea. Great injury was done to the pleasure and fishing boats at both of the latter places, but Teignmouth was not so unfortunate as Dawlish in this respect. Its harbour is almost land-locked, and from the beach where the boats are moored, as well as from the quays, the eye glances north-west and south-west upon a beautiful picture of river scenery, of which the distant Dartmoor Hills and the Haldon Heights form the background. The accompanying illustration, from a photograph by Messrs. Valentine & Son, of Teignmouth, taken during the week of the blizzard, depicts one part of this scene in as wintry a garb as any it has worn during the last half century. The village of Shaldon, on the opposite side of the Teign, lies exposed to a S.E. gale blowing across the low-lying sands of the Teignmouth "Point," and here the owners of fishing and other craft had much to lament in the way of destruction to their floating property.

In Torbay a French brig, the Emilie, of Cherbourg, was driven ashore at Hogg's Cove, under Berry Head, at about four o'clock on Tuesday afternoon. The coastguards and Royal Naval Reserve, under the direction of Mr. Drayton, chief officer of coastguard, and assisted by a large number of fishermen, got out the rocket apparatus, and the crew, eight in number, were quickly landed. They were at once invited to the house of the Misses Hogg, at Berry Head, and provided with refreshments. The vessel was badly injured, and became a total wreck.

The ketch Sunshine, of Faversham, from London to Exmouth, with manure, was fallen in with on Thursday at noon, by the Brixham fishing ketch Inter-Nos, Berry Head bearing north-west, and distant twenty-five miles. She had her mainsail blown away, and her boats and water-casks washed overboard. When fallen in with, the crew were without water to drink, and their vessel was labouring heavily in the trough of the sea. The Sunshine was taken in tow by the Inter-Nos, £250 being agreed upon for the service, and both vessels arrived at Brixham on the same night. The fishing ketch Gertrude arrived in Brixham on Thursday, having on her deck the boat of the Crusader, of Aberystwith, which she had picked up in the channel with eight hands on her, and landed at Falmouth on Friday. The ketch Annie also arrived, with sails blown away, and her ballast shifted. The Olive & Mary and the Pickwick, ketches, had their sails blown away and their bulwarks damaged. All the crews described the gale as the heaviest they had ever been out in, and one skipper stated that he had seen four vessels founder without being able to render assistance. Later news has not, however, verified this story.

Some trawlers were reported during the week as missing from Brixham, but in course of time anxiety on their account was removed, and they either reached home or news of their safety was received from other ports to which they had run for shelter. Some Plymouth trawlers were also in difficulties, and it was feared that they had been wrecked, but in a few days their whereabouts was ascertained, and it was discovered that they had escaped with somewhat severe damage.

Start Point was on Monday night and again on the succeeding Tuesday a scene of some heartrending disasters. Many vessels, including the iron steamer Marana, 1,682 tons register, belonging to Messrs. George Bell and Co. of Liverpool; and the full-rigged ship Dryad, 1,035 tons register, owned by J. B. Walmsley, of Water Street, Liverpool, were totally wrecked within a short distance of each other, resulting, it is calculated, in an aggregate loss of over fifty lives. The Marana left Victoria Dock, London, at 11 A.M. on Sunday, March 1st, with a crew of twenty-eight. She was bound for Colombo with a cargo of sleepers, but was proceeding first to Swansea for coal. Whilst going down Channel on Monday night she encountered the gale which, charged with blinding snow, was blowing heavily from the S.E., and struck on the Blackstone Rock, at Start Point. Seeing that the vessel must go to pieces very shortly, the officers and crew took to the boats, most of them having life-belts on. The starboard lifeboat, in charge of the boatswain and with twenty-two men on board, proceeded in the direction of Prawle Point, and was almost immediately followed by a smaller boat in which were the captain, the chief engineer, the mess-room steward, and three seamen. The latter boat was soon separated from the lifeboat, and was never seen again. The lifeboat got under the coastguard station at Prawle, but the appearance of the coast was threatening, and the crew pushed off again. Almost immediately a sea struck the boat and capsized her. A bitter struggle for life on the part of the twenty immersed seamen succeeded, and those who had clung to the boat managed to get her righted, and clambered on board, but soon after she was again turned over. Once more she righted, and eventually drifted on to the Mal Rock to the east of Prawle Point, where the four occupants—all that remained of the crew of the vessel—contrived to get on to the rocks.

After a while they climbed the cliff, three of them carrying the fourth survivor, who was suffering from exhaustion and injuries, and after heavy toil they managed to get near to Prawle. Here two of the men agreed to remain with the shipmate, who to all appearance was fast succumbing to exhaustion, while the other went into the village for help. The man, like his three surviving comrades, was a Swede, and consequently unable to make himself understood, but Mr. Perry, Lloyd's signalman at Prawle, and the coastguardsman on duty, supplied him with food and clothing, and then went to search for traces of the wreck which had clearly taken place not far off. It was not until long past midnight that the mates of the Swede were discovered, and then it was too late to save the exhausted man, who died almost immediately after their arrival. The remaining survivors were taken into Prawle, and under kind treatment soon recovered.

Mrs. Briggs, wife of one of the lighthouse keepers at the Start, says that she was looking out of her window a little after half-past five o'clock on Monday evening, when she saw the steamer pass very close to the east side of Start Point as if she had come out from the bay. Seeing her great danger, and thinking it was impossible for her to clear the rocks running off from the Point, she hastened to another window, from which she had a view of the Blackstone Rocks. She then saw the steamer broadside on to the rocks. She at once gave an alarm to Mr. Jones, the head-keeper, who hurried out to give any assistance in his power, but within a very few minutes the vessel parted in two, the stern part sinking near the rocks, while the fore part washed away and sank a short distance to the west of the Start.

Mr. Crickett, chief officer of Coastguards at Hallsands, has stated that he received intelligence of the casualty at 6·40 P.M. by a messenger sent by Mr. Jones, of the Start Lighthouse, who said the vessel had struck the rocks about 500 yards south-east of the Start. He immediately despatched a messenger to Prawle, a distance of nearly five miles, for the life-saving apparatus. Another messenger he sent to Torcross to Mr. Ridge, the chief officer of Coastguards there, and Mr. Crickett then proceeded to the scene of the wreck, but on arriving, nothing could be seen of the vessel, as she had totally disappeared, and she was supposed to have gone to pieces five minutes after she struck. The coastguard at Hallsands say that they saw the Marana fully an hour before she struck, and she was then near the Skerries Bank, off the Start, acting in such a manner that they considered her steering gear was out of order. They saw her come into the bay and afterwards go out again, and watched her very closely, but they thought she had gone clear of the Start until they heard otherwise from the lighthouse-keepers.

John Nelson, one of the survivors, said in the course of his evidence at the inquest held on the first eight bodies recovered from the wreck:—"On Monday, 9th inst., I had tea at five o'clock, and went to my bunk. It was the first mate's watch. As I was turning into my bunk I heard someone shout out, 'Land right ahead.' It was blowing a bit stiff in the afternoon at three o'clock, and as the gale increased the canvas was taken in. The vessel struck almost immediately after I heard the shout, and the engines were going full-speed at the time. I came out and stood in the forecastle door. The captain was then on the bridge. The vessel struck first at the bow. When I came on deck she struck aft as well, knocking her propeller and rudder away. The captain then gave the order to get the starboard lifeboat ready for launching. All the three officers were on the bridge. The wind was blowing hard, and the waves were dashing all over the ship. It was daylight, but the Start light was lit. We could see the land plainly enough, although it was thick with heavy rain. There were two lifeboats, one on each side of the ship, and two smaller boats. We lowered the lifeboat and got into it, some 20 or 22 being in it, and got away from the ship on the starboard side. The boat was in charge of the boatswain, and the second and third engineers and the chief steward were in the boat. We left on board the captain, the three mates, the chief engineer, and the mess-room steward. Just as we were turning to get clear of the rocks, we looked at the ship, and saw the captain and the others leave in the other boat on the starboard side. They got safely away from the ship. After the vessel struck we hoisted a red pennant with a white ball as a signal of distress. When we got away it was getting dark, and we saw nothing of the other boat afterwards, but supposed they were following us. We pulled in shore to a kind of bay, but not thinking it safe to land, we went out of that. We could see nothing but rocks on our coming down, and in getting out of the bay our boat capsized. There was a very heavy sea running up against the rocks. We got hold of the keel of the boat, some twelve or fourteen of us that remained, and then the boat turned over again. After that only four or five of us remained sticking to the boat. We stuck to the boat until she broke up on the rocks. When I let go the boat I could feel the rocks with my feet, and I then walked on shore. There were four of us that came on shore, but I could see nothing of any others. When we got on shore we walked to a brake and got shelter. We had to help Rasmossen up, as he had no boots on. He was living half an hour before the coastguards found us, but we had been on shore a long time before they found us—about five or six hours."

Many of the bodies of the unfortunate men were washed ashore within a few days, and not far from the spot where the vessel went down. All of them were not identified, as the survivors had joined the ship too recently to be acquainted with all the officers and crew.

Another serious calamity in Start Bay occurred during Monday night, and not many hours later than the wreck of the Marana, when the ship Dryad, bound for Valparaiso, with a crew of 22 hands all told, went ashore about a mile to the eastward of Start Point. When the ship went on shore Mr. Hewett, with the life-saving apparatus, had left Hallsands for Prawle, from whence rumours of disaster had been brought, and he had got as far as Chevilstone Cross when he was overtaken by a mounted messenger despatched by the chief officer of the coastguard at Torcross, who desired him to return to the Start to the assistance of the Dryad. He got to the scene of the wreck at half-past two in the morning. By that time the vessel had broken up, all her masts having gone overboard, and but little of her could be discerned in the darkness. The place where she struck was right under the high land of the Start where the cliffs are very precipitous. With regard to this vessel, the coastguardsmen say that they saw no signals of distress whatever, and it has been considered probable that she was proceeding with a fair wind down Channel, and no land being visible in the snow-filled gloom of the night, those on board were unconscious of their proximity to the land until they found themselves on the rocks. In this case there was, perhaps, no time to show distress signals, and the ship may have been some time ashore before she was discovered by the coastguards.

About midnight on the ninth, the storm was at its height, and all men of Start Bay agree that they never remember such a violent storm, the water of the bay being one mass of foam, it being almost impossible to look to the windward. Mr. Jones, the head keeper of the Star Lighthouse, says he was standing in the yard by his home a little after midnight, looking in the direction of the Bay, when he saw right under the headland, and close to the Start, what he considered to be a ship's lights. He called the other keepers, and as well as they were able they got down to the place where they saw the lights. It was at the risk of their lives that they went down the cliffs, and it was only by holding on to each other they were prevented from being blown away. When they got down they could not discover a vestige of anything, neither did they hear a cry of any sort. The coastguards at Hallsands also saw lights, and fired off a rocket and burned a blue light to warn the ship of her danger, but the vessel's lights were only seen a few minutes before they disappeared.

In spite of all the efforts of those on shore no trace of a ship could be seen, and it was not until daybreak the next morning that a man was discovered lying on a low rock, known as John Hatherley's Nose, some 500 yards from the spot where the Dryad ultimately proved to have struck. Help was at once sought for, and Mr. Briggs, one of the keepers, and Mr. Pollyblank, the coastguard, then returned to the rock with ropes. They threw the rope on to the rocks, which fell only about a foot away from the sailor. He saw it and then slid down, evidently with the intention to secure the rope, but he seemed to be afraid, and instead of slipping on the lower ledge of the rock where the rope was, he climbed on the top of the rock again, and laid himself flat on it on his face and hands. He then seemed to lose his hold, and slid down, holding on to the rocks for several seconds, when he fell head over heels, and was washed away and drowned. Those trying to rescue him, seeing how exhausted he was, had fetched a ladder to get to him, and Mr. Briggs fastened a rope to himself to swim out to him, but in the meantime he was washed away. He was a young man. Grave doubts were expressed as to what vessel he came from, for it seems almost impossible he could have got to the rocks from the Dryad; and there was some wreckage visible near the rocks that did not appear to have belonged to the Dryad. The coastguards at Hallsands said distinctly that the lights they saw were a steamer's lights, whilst there is no doubt that the lights the lighthouse-keepers saw were those of the Dryad. Only a piece of the bow of the Dryad was discovered in the morning, but a large mass of broken wreckage was discovered along the coast, and tons of it were washed out to sea by the next tide. Eight bodies were recovered, and friends of those composing the crew of the Dryad journeyed to Hallsands for the purpose of identifying their friends or relatives. There were no survivors, and consequently no details are known, but a statement has been made that the channel pilot had warned the captain that the ship's compass was two points out.

Whilst Mr. Crickett and some of the coastguards under his charge at Hallsands were at the Start Point on the night of the 9th, trying to render assistance to the stranded steamship Marana, they saw a light in the bay, and they answered it by burning a blue light, and one of the coastguards was sent back to try and discover the place the light proceeded from. On the remainder of the coastguards returning to Hallsands shortly after, a light was seen near Beesands, and on reaching that place they found the schooner Lunesdale stranded. Mr. Ridge, the chief officer of coastguards stationed at Torcross, had arrived with some of his men, and they, with the assistance of the Beesands fishermen, were trying to effect a communication with the vessel. The captain was in the fore starboard rigging, and the remainder of the crew, four in number, were in the starboard mizen rigging. All these men were thus on the weather side of the ship, and the captain not being so exposed from his position as the others, succeeded with the utmost difficulty in getting round to the other, or shore side of the vessel. A fisherman named Roper, of Beesands, then at the risk of his own life, made a desperate effort to save the captain. He got a line with a lead attached to it, and threw it close to the captain's feet, the latter succeeding, after a frantic effort, to fasten the line to a lifebuoy, and attached himself to it, and was then safely hauled on shore. The other seamen were not so successful in changing their positions, and in their endeavours they were washed away and drowned. All this time the seas were breaking right over the vessel. The coastguards and fishermen remained by the vessel for nearly an hour afterwards, shouting to see if they could get any response from the crew, but getting none, all hope of saving them was given up. When it was found that the Prawle life-saving apparatus, in charge of Mr. Hewett, could be of no service to the Marana, a message was left at Start farm for it to be brought on to Beesands to the help of the Lunesdale, but it arrived too late to be of any service. The Lunesdale was a three-masted schooner of 141 tons register, owned by Messrs. James Fisher & Sons, of Barrow, and was bound from London to a Lancashire port.

While efforts were being made at Beesands to save the crew of the Lunesdale, a schooner named Lizzie Ellen, 73 tons register, and belonging to Mr. Samuel Coppack, of Chester, with a cargo of clay from Charlestown for London, went on shore just opposite Hallsands. In spite of the tremendous force of the wind and the blinding spray and snow six fishermen, named T. Trout, George Stone, Robert Trout, James Lynn, William Mitchell, and John Patey, at the imminent peril of their lives, made a gallant effort to rescue the crew of the vessel, which consisted of four hands. With great difficulty, and by the aid of ropes, these men succeeded in lowering themselves to the bottom of the cliff. By throwing lines on board the schooner the mate and the third hand were saved, but the captain and the boy were lost. The captain, Robert Dood, urged the boy, who was crying bitterly, to jump over into the sea, with the chance of being drawn on shore, but he could not persuade him to take the leap. At length the captain jumped himself, but at the wrong time, and he was carried out by a receding wave. The boy, Frank Davis, also perished.

For some time after this week of tempest, all along the coast from Prawle to the Start, could be seen broken wreckage. Such was the fury of the gale that everything seemed split to matchwood. It is supposed that other wrecks than those of which some knowledge has been obtained occurred on this eventful night. Mr. Crickett, a coastguardsman, picked up on the following Saturday a board bearing the words "Nymph of T——," it being broken off at the letter T, and it is conjectured that this may belong to one of the vessels referred to. A painful sequel to the wreck of the Marana occurred on Wednesday, March 18th, nine days after the catastrophe. A molecatcher of Prawle found at about half-past eleven, in a field half a mile from a village named Furze Brake, and about a quarter of a mile from the sea, the body of a man. The corpse was lying flat upon its face, and was clothed in an oil-skin coat in addition to the ordinary kind of seaman's dress. A life-belt was lying close by, and the locality was not more than a hundred yards from the spot where the two survivors from the Marana had been found supporting to the best of their power their dying comrade. Unknown to the other survivors this man must have succeeded in reaching the shore, but only to die. Undoubtedly he walked in search of help and shelter until he sank from exhaustion, and was covered with a fall of snow thick enough to screen his body from view until a thaw had set in.

The inquests held on the bodies of those unfortunate seamen who lost their lives in the vicinity of the Start have had the effect of a communication being made to the Board of Trade as to the necessity of life-saving apparatus being placed at Hallsands. In the face of a hurricane of almost unprecedented force, many gallant and eager attempts were made to save life, but with only a very limited measure of success, owing as much to the want of suitable appliances as to the rugged character of the coast, and the merciless fury of the gale.

Along the coast, in the neighbourhood of Falmouth, which from its exposed position was fully open to the strength of the blizzard, there were more disastrous wrecks, and here also the loss of life was great. The most serious calamity occurred at about half-past one on Tuesday morning, and was that which, at Penare Point, near Helford River, befell the four-masted steel ship Bay of Panama, of London, 2,282 tons register. This vessel, owned by the Bullock's Bay Line, was from Calcutta, with a cargo of 17,000 bales of jute for Dundee. The captain, David Wright, of Liverpool, his wife, all but one of the six officers, four apprentices, and six of the crew, were either frozen to death in the rigging or drowned. This made a loss of eighteen lives out of a company of about forty all told.

At the village of St. Keverne, not far from Penare Point, it became known at about noon on Tuesday that a wreck had occurred at the mouth of the Helford River, and from there the first news of what had occurred was conveyed into Falmouth, with great courage, and in the face of tremendous difficulties, by Mr. J. H. James, of Old Vicarage, St. Keverne. At one o'clock, Mr. James started on his pony for Helston in the midst of a terrible snowstorm. His intention was to telegraph to Falmouth, but all the wires were down, and communication was impossible except on foot. This he undertook, and by dauntless perseverance at length accomplished; but his experiences during the journey are among the most thrilling personal incidents connected with the gale. After proceeding for about two miles, he could only get along by crawling on his hands and knees through the snow, and his face had become coated with snow, and icicles hung from his ears. He at last found shelter at a wayside cottage, and at daybreak next morning again set out, reaching Falmouth at 9 o'clock, and giving information to Messrs. Broad and Sons, who sent out steamers to the scene of the wreck. The Bay of Panama was discovered with her head to the north, broadside on to the sea, and jammed under the Nare Head, close against the cliff. Her mainmast was gone, and the sea was making clean breaches right over her.

Fortunately for the survivors clinging to the stranded ship, before Mr. James had started on his adventurous journey to Falmouth, on Tuesday morning, the rocket apparatus, in charge of the coastguard, who were aroused by Mr. Nicholls, of Penare, had reached the scene from Helford. The first rocket fired threw a line right over the ship, and within fifteen minutes the whole of the survivors were safely on shore. Chief boatman Fisher, of the coastguard, went on board the vessel after the hands taken off to see if any one was left alive, but his self-sacrifice was without result. Accounts of survivors, including those of Mr. Fred Evans, boatswain's mate, Mr. Charles Higgins, quartermaster, and Mr. Beresford, apprentice, relate that the Bay of Panama was 111 days from Calcutta when she struck. There had been forty-two days of severe weather before reaching the western end of the English Channel, and here severe snowstorms and heavy squalls were encountered. At half-past eleven on Sunday night they sighted a light, and being in a position of danger they burned several blue lights, the captain thinking the light came from a steamer. The vessel was now drifting to leeward without a stitch of canvas on her, and the captain soon expressed the opinion that they were to leeward of the Lizard and clear of all land. At half-past twelve the watch went below, put on some clean clothes, and got into their bunks. The captain remained on deck, his wife being in her cabin.

Within an hour from this time the ship struck and began rapidly to fill. Most of those who had been below went forward, though the forecastle had been burst in, and was flooded. Seas were breaking over the vessel, and nearly all the officers were early swept away. The second officer went to fetch a rocket, and was never seen again. Attempts were made to get a line on shore, and one seaman is said to have volunteered to swim the distance, but the former was found impracticable, and in the latter case the other seamen held their comrade back. Some of the crew took refuge in the rigging, and at daybreak the second quartermaster died there, the mate died an hour after, and the boatswain, in a state of delirium, jumped from the mizzen-top into the sea and was drowned. Just before six o'clock in the morning, the after-end of the ship broke in two, the mainmast having previously fallen. It is said that, at the time the rescuing party arrived on the scene, six men were frozen in the rigging. The survivors were taken to St. Keverne Farm, which they reached at half-past ten on Tuesday morning, and where they were kindly treated. They remained there until four in the afternoon, when they were conveyed to Gweek in a 'bus. From here it was absolutely necessary for them to walk to Falmouth through the snow, and as many of them were thinly clad, and had no boots, their trials were not over until Falmouth was reached, where Messrs. Jewell and Burton, and Mr. and Mrs. Weir, of the Royal Cornwall Sailors' Home, treated them with all the kindness and attention they so much needed. Most of the bodies from the Bay of Panama were recovered, that of the Captain's wife having been found lying on the shore early on the morning of the wreck.

Though this was the most serious wreck near Falmouth, it was far from being the only one. Reports of wrecks and loss of life continued to be received for many days following the beginning of the gale on Monday. Near Porthoustock, on Monday night, the sloop Dove, of Topsham, was lost, but in this case the crew were saved. The Dove left Exmouth Bight on March 8th, arriving at Plymouth Breakwater early on Monday morning. Just after daybreak, in company with several other vessels, she left for Falmouth. There was a strong wind blowing, which, as time went on, increased with much violence, and was followed by a blinding snowstorm. The captain and mate of the Dove, who were both at the helm, could, they said afterwards, scarcely see their hands before them. At about three o'clock in the afternoon the vessel was near the Manacle Rocks, and off Porthoustock Cove, and here, while in a most critical situation, the tremendous sea lifted the little craft clean over the rocks, and she was washed up on the beach. The skipper threw his little boy overboard, he and his mate following in the same way, and all were rescued by those persons on shore. Near the same spot, the ketch Aquilon, of Jersey, and the ketch Edwin, were reported lost with all hands.

The steamer Stannington, from Newport to Exeter with a cargo of potatoes, broke her shaft on Monday off the Longships, and was towed into Falmouth on Wednesday afternoon. The barque Frith, of Lorne, 333 tons, from Hamburg to Glasgow, in ballast, was in a critical condition on Tuesday, about ten miles south of the Lizard. She slipped from the tug towing her, and was on her beam ends, and fast making water, when she was picked up by the s.s. Anglesea, of Liverpool, and towed into Falmouth. A German steamer, the Carl Hirschberg, from Hamburg to Cardiff in ballast, drove ashore at Portscatho. The schooner Agnes and Helen, of Beaumaris, went ashore on Tuesday morning in Bream Bay. A steamship named the Dundela, from St. Michael for Hull, with fruit, was totally wrecked at Portloe, near Falmouth, on Monday night. All the crew, except a boy named Taylor, who was lost, were brought ashore over the rocks by the aid of the fishermen and coastguard, who contrived to get a line from the shore to the vessel. The brig Crusader, of Aberystwith, from Carnarvon, with slate for Hamburg, was abandoned at one o'clock on Tuesday off Trevose Head, with seven feet of water in her hold. The Crusader left Carnarvon at nine o'clock on Monday morning, in fine weather. It remained fine up to six o'clock the same evening, when severe weather was encountered. At nine o'clock, off the Bishop, it was blowing a gale, and the brig was fast making water. The pumps were kept going until one o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, when it was found impossible to keep the water under. The brig was therefore abandoned, having seven feet of water in her hold. The captain and crew, seven all told, took to the boat, in which they were tossed about for nineteen hours, enduring great privation. The weather was bitterly cold, and the men were almost frozen. One of the crew, Thomas Owen, succumbed to his sufferings at four o'clock on Wednesday morning. "Another two hours in the boat," remarked Captain Williams, "and we should have all perished." To keep the boat from being swamped, she rode with sea-anchor out, and everything was thrown overboard, including spare clothes. At eight o'clock on Wednesday morning, when thoroughly exhausted, they were fortunately picked up by the fishing smack Gertrude, about thirty miles off the land, and arrived at Falmouth on the same day. The crew were received at the Sailors' Home.

The crew of the Netherlands barque Magellan were taken into Falmouth on the evening of Sunday, March 16th, the vessel having foundered on the previous Thursday in the Channel, in lat. 47·48 N., long. 6·53 W.

A large number of minor accidents at sea occurred on this part of the coast, and while the Channel outside contained numerous traces of floating wreckage, disabled vessels of all descriptions were either being towed or making their way into Falmouth. Rumours of missing vessels were being continually received, and the time was one of great anxiety. All the help that could be given was needed for those who had escaped with their lives, and others who were known to be still at sea, probably in situations of peril, and this assistance was very willingly afforded. Most efficient and welcome aid was rendered by the local Branch of the Shipwrecked Mariners' Aid Society to the distressed crews. The captain and crew of the Crusader (six men), the crew of the Agnes and Helen, the crew of the Dungella (eleven men), and the survivors of the crew of the Bay of Panama (sixteen men) were provided with free railway passes to their several homes, and each man supplied with food for the journey, by the hon. agent of the society at that port (Mr. F. H. Earle), who also boarded, lodged, and otherwise provided for the crews of the two first-named vessels, the men being more or less destitute. The homes of the men were Bangor, Aberystwith, and other places in Wales, and London, Liverpool, Hull, and Great Yarmouth. At a public meeting held in the public hall on Tuesday evening, many promises for subscriptions towards a fund in aid of the boatmen were received.

Some dissatisfaction was expressed that during the wrecks at Porthoustock and Porthalla, on March 9th, when about thirty lives were lost, no life-boat had been launched, and the National Lifeboat Institution sent to St. Keverne, about a fortnight after the occurrence, Commander Biddors, R.N., who made inquiries into the matter. It appeared on investigation that some of the life-boat crew did not readily respond to the call signals, their explanation being that they did not hear or see them. When they arrived at the life-boat station the storm had increased, and it was dangerous to put to sea. A proposal for the provision of a smaller life-boat, requiring fewer oars, has been submitted to the life-boat committee.

Off Scilly, several accidents occurred, but they were neither so numerous nor attended with the same fatal results as those on the coast further east. The ketch Aunt, Bude, was taken into Plymouth in a disabled condition, and with only two of the crew that remained severely ill from frostbites. On Saturday morning, 14th March, when in latitude 7·20 W., and longitude 48·7 W., about 233 miles S.SW. of Scilly, the Astrea, Captain Burton, sighted the Aunt some miles off with her sails down and flying a signal of distress. She bore down upon her, and Captain Burton sent alongside a boat's crew, who found the captain, H. Hines, and a sailor named Jewett wrapped in the mainsail in a shocking state, and scarcely able to speak. Their hands and legs were also so much swollen from frostbites and exposure that they could not handle anything or lift themselves up or stand. Brandy and medicine were administered to them, and after a time they sufficiently recovered to be able to inform their rescuers that the Aunt was ten days out from Sandersfoot with coals. Four days before a lad named Stapleton had died from exposure, and his body was thrown overboard.

A serious collision, resulting in the loss of twenty-two lives, happened during the week of the gale about 140 miles south-west of Scilly, at 9 o'clock on the evening of Friday the 13th March. Two vessels, the Roxburg Castle, of Newcastle, a steamship of 1,222 tons register, and the British Peer, ship, 1428 tons, came into collision just as the gale that had been blowing all the week was moderating, and the steamer was struck with considerable force by the British Peer a little abaft the funnel. She was almost cut in two, and filled so rapidly that in about ten minutes she sank, losing twenty-two out of a total of twenty-four hands. As a further result of the collision, the British Peer had her bows stove in, and carried away her bowsprit, jibboom, and head gear. The forward bulkhead held good, and kept the vessel afloat. After the collision nothing could be done to save the lives of the crew of the Roxburg Castle, although their piteous cries for help were plainly heard on the British Peer. Captain Tyrer, a splendid swimmer, whilst in the water combated the waves, took his clothes off in the water, and was picked up by the British Peer, as was also one of the seamen, an A.B. The drowned men are reported to be principally from Newport. After the Roxburg Castle had sunk, the British Peer was fallen in with, about ninety miles south-west of the Wolf Rock, by the steamship Morglay, of Southampton, Captain Hughes, from Cardiff to Marseilles, and towed to off the Manacles, where she was transferred to the tug Triton, and taken into Falmouth harbour. Captain Tyrer was very much knocked about during his swim to the British Peer.

The Hamburg American Company's steamship Suevia, 2,440 tons, had a narrow escape in the Channel on Monday night. The Suevia passed the Lizard on Monday morning, and there were then evident indications of a coming storm. At 11 A.M. the wind began to blow heavily from the north-east, and at 2·30 P.M. it raged with hurricane fury, accompanied by a blinding snowstorm. The seas ran very high, and the ship laboured heavily. At about three o'clock, when eight miles east of the Start Point, the engineer reported that the lower pressure piston rod had given out, and that in consequence the machinery was disabled. An endeavour was then made to work the other engine, but unsuccessfully, and sail was then put on the vessel. By this means she was prevented from driving ashore during the terrific squalls that were blowing dead on the land. After a night and day of great danger, a schooner was sighted on Tuesday afternoon, which the captain of the Suevia considered went down in one of the squalls. On Wednesday the steamer Acme was fallen in with, and on her the chief officer proceeded to Falmouth for assistance. During Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, efforts were made to repair the machinery, and these meeting at last with some success, by early on Friday the vessel was headed up channel, and proceeded at a slow pace until the Eddystone was sighted. The passengers of the Suevia were landed at Plymouth, from whence they were sent on to Hamburg. The distance the Suevia drifted from the scene of the accident until Friday at noon was 125 miles, and it was very fortunate that they were able to keep clear of the coast. Steamers from Plymouth, London, and Falmouth, the latter with the officer of the Suevia who had gone on shore for help, were looking for the vessel, but happily their services were not required. But for the excellent seamanship and mechanical skill of those on board, another dreadful calamity would doubtless have been added to the long list already recorded.