The loss of the Minotaur may be attributed to their not knowing their
position; the pilot's desire to put the ship on the starboard tack at
twelve o'clock at night, with the wind from the south-east, showed
that he thought himself on the English coast. This fatal error in the
navigation of the ship is not easily accounted for; it arises in a
great measure from the dread of approaching the dangerous shoals on
our own coast, many of them far off the land, such as the Leman, and
Ower, Smith's Knowl, the Ridge, and others further in shore. Great
fear of these shoals is felt by all hands, and no doubt the man at the
helm would be cautioned not to bring the ship to the westward of her
course, and he would therefore be apt to err on the other
side--currents also may have carried her to the eastward. I am
tempted to offer this opinion from having experienced a similar
danger. In the year of the Battle of Copenhagen, I was in the Lynx
sloop of war on her return from the Baltic, and when we supposed
ourselves in mid-channel, between Yarmouth and the Texel, about two
o'clock, in the middle watch, we touched the ground in broken water;
happily the weather was moderate, and, by hauling to the westward we
soon got into deep water again. The following morning, about ten
o'clock, we spoke a lugger, and were informed that we were seven or
eight leagues from the coast of Holland. The distance ran from the
time we struck, told us that we must have been on the Haacks. A happy
escape!