XXV.-ST. MARY'S, SCILLY ISLES.

The Henry Dundas, 37 feet long, 9 feet beam, 10 oars.

THIS Life-boat was stationed at St. Mary's, the capital of the Scilly Isles, in 1874. Previous to that time it had been considered by persons there that, as the majority of wrecks occurred in foggy weather with light winds, aid could more rapidly be given by the fast-pulling pilot gigs of the boatmen. Wrecks have occurred, however, from which men have perished for want of more efficient help than the pilot gigs can afford, and whom it is supposed a Life-boat might have rescued. At St. Mary's a crew can always be procured; and there is often a steamer which can tow the Life-boat to the scene of disaster— an advantage not to be counted on at the other islands.

The boat-house is placed on the south side of the Island, and the boat can be launched close to it; or if required for service on the north and western side, she is conveyed on her carriage through the town of St. Mary's, and launched in the harbour down a convenient slip.

The Henry Dundas is especially adapted for sailing, and in the absence of a steamer, would have to proceed considerable distances in that way. Her cost was left to the Institution by the will of the late Mrs. DUNDAS DRUMMOND, in 1874.

JOHN BANFIELD, Esq., is the Honorary Secretary of the Scilly Isles Life-boat branch, and to him the Institution is much indebted for the effective manner in which the Station is maintained.

I'he Isles of Scilly were a favourite rendezvous of the Scandinavian Rovers, being a convenient spot from which to pour down on either the con- tinental or British shores. They are supposed to have been conquered by the Saxon king Athel- stan in 926. They were held by the Royalists to a late period of the contest between Crown and Parliament; Prince Rupert, after all imme- diate chances of success on the mainland had gone, retreated here, and, at the head of 600 officers and 200 men of his late command, formed a doughty addition to the garrison.

In 1649 Sir John Grenville, the Royalist governor, had caused the Islands to be fortified, and they became a stronghold for privateering till the neigh- bouring seas were swept of British ships; at last the Parliament fitted out a large fleet, commanded by the celebrated Admirals Blake and Ayscue, to whom Grenville ultimately surrendered in June, 1651. Prince Charles found a temporary shelter in the Islands after the overthrow of the Royalists in the West in 1645 ; but the ships of the Parlia- ment having established a blockade, he escaped through it to Jersey.

The Star fortress, which overlooks the Island of St. Mary, was built in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; it was considered as an important out- post in those days.

The most dangerous parts of the Islands are the labyrinths of shoals, rocks and islands, ex- tending between the Island of Annat to the south- west, towards the Bishop lighthouse—one of the most exposed in the world. It has the appear- ance, at high water, of rising up out of the ocean, as no surrounding rocks are apparent: the spray rises to a height of more than 100 feet above the top of the lanthorn. The first attempt to erect a lighthouse here was made in 1849, but when nearly completed it was swept away by a storm on the 6th Feb. 1850. The present lighthouse, which is a grand engineering triumph, was completed, and its light first exhibited, on the 1st Sept., 1858, since which time the wrecks have become com- paratively very rare.

The lighthouse, however, cannot warn in thick fogs; and the terrible loss of life at the wreck of the Schiller, on the night of the 7th May, 1875, has at last convinced every one who has considered the matter, that a want only second in importance to the lighthouses themselves are, at least, two of the most powerful steam fog-horns, at different sides of the Islands. On that occasion, 43 only were saved out of the 354 persons on board the Schiller when she struck. She was lost on the Retarrier ledges, not far from the spot where Sir Cloudesley Shovel's ship was lost, and within a short distance of the Bishop lighthouse—which, however, was entirely obscured by the fog.

On St. Agnes a lighthouse was first put in 1680, and for more than 100 years the light was produced by a coal-fire. An old chronicler wrote: " Before the coming of the present keeper, I've known it scarcely perceivable in the night at the Island of St. Mary's, where it now shines like a comet." This was about the year 1700. One cannot help a shuddering regret, as one reads, for all the poor mariners of pre-lighthouse times; for he adds, "and some are of opinion that, in the time of the former lightkeepers, it has been suffered to go out, or sometimes not lighted!" In 1790 the St. Agnes lighthouse was furnished with an effective system of lamps and reflectors, accord- ing to modern ideas.

An appalling loss of life from shipwreck oc- curred on this side of the Islands on the night of the 22nd Oct., 1707. The weather was toggy, and it was blowing hard. The greater part of a squadron commanded by Sir Cloudesley Shovel, the celebrated admiral, was wrecked on the reefs and rocks between St. Agnes and the present Bishop lighthouse. His flagship, the Association, struck the Gilstone about 8 P.M., and almost imme- diately foundered, when all on board perished except one man. A similar fate befel the Eagle, 70 guns, and the Romney, 50 guns. The Fire- brand and 1'lmnix ran ashore, and the crews were saved. The St. George, commanded by Lord Dursley, struck on the same rock as the flagship; but the same wave which was seen to overwhelm that vessel, washed the St. George off into deep water, and she es6aped. The Royal Anne, com- manded by Sir George Byng, as she hauled to the wind on discovering breakers ahead, found the Temean Rock under her mainchains, and as she drew ahead her quarter gallery was knocked off, but she also escaped. Altogether 2,009 officers and men perished. Sir Cloudesley Shovel, whose body was washed ashore, was buried first of all on the seashore at Willow Cove in St. Mary's Isle, but afterwards the body was removed to Westminster Abbey: the spot of the grave is still shown at Willow Cove, and it is said that grass cannot be made to grow on it! The same Cove in also remarkable as the spot where the French brig Nerina, of Dunkirk, drifted ashore on the 18th Nov., 1840, bottom up, in which condition she had been drifting about for three days, with a remnant of the crew, five in number, entombed alive inside her. After undergoing great suffering from the gradual exhaustion of the atmosphere, they felt the ship strike about midnight of the 18th; at daylight on the 19th they crawled down from their position between the cargo and the kelson, and found a rock sticking through the cabin skylight, and a hole knocked in the quarter, through which, to his great joy, the captain saw they were nearly dry on a beach, and that a man was walking on it. Still they had no means of letting the man know there were live people inside the overturned stranded vessel, till at last the man had the curiosity to climb up and put his hand into the hole, whereupon it was promptly seized by the poor skipper inside, to the great horror and amazement of the fisherman, who, however, of course soon summoned assistance, and had the half-dead Frenchmen cut out of their prison.

XXVI.—NEWCASTLE (DUNDRUM BAY).

The Reigate, 30 feet long, 6 feet 6 inches beam, 6 oars.

DUNDRUM BAT is a deep and dangerous bay situated in the centre of the eastern coast of County Down, facing the south-east, terminating at its north-eastern extremity in St. John's Point, and in, southerly gales exposed to very heavy seas.

The south-western side of the bay is over- shadowed by the Mourne Mountains, which rise to the height of 2,450 feet. On north and east sides the shores are flat and shallow, with sands extending to a distance of a mile uncovered, or with little water on them at low tide, but with a fair depth close up to the low shore at high water, so that an ordinary coaster running into the bay before a south-east gale may drive nearly up to the low sandhills at the top of high water, and unless the season be very inclement, the crew can generally save themselves by taking to the rigging till the tide falls, when they may get on shore in safety, as the ship being on moderately hard sand will not go to pieces readily, or be engulfed as if on a quicksand; but if the tide be not high, a disabled vessel will strike some distance out, and the sea curling over the bul- warks will sweep off the hatches, fill the ship, and in several cases has caused the total loss of the vessels. In these cases the crews are in imminent danger of being swept away by the overwhelm- ing seas on the return of the tide if not speedily rescued by the Life-boat. From this peril, the Reigate, one of the Institution's smallest self- righting Life-boats, has, from time to time, saved many lives. The work is then accomplished at great risk to the Life-boat crew, owing to the peculiarly heavy wall-like seas that break on the edge of the deep water.

This bay was the scene of the stranding of the Great Britain, so long the largest steamer afloat, which ran ashore here in 1846, and was, with great efforts, eventually got afloat again in 1847.

After that accident, Dundrum Bay remained for some years without a Life boat, but when the NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION became reor- ganised, and had time to furnish the more impor- tant coasts with Life-boat Stations, it turned its attention to Dundrum Bay and the like places, dangerous in themselves, but, from absence of much local over-sea traffic, not showing a large annual list of wrecks; and in 1854 a Life-boat was placed by it at Newcastle: this was a self- righting boat 28J feet long, and was replaced by the present boat in the year 185'.*. Since that time 53 lives have been rescued from different vessels wrecked in the bay, and assistance has been rendered to other ships ultimately saved.