'Wednesday, December 22nd.--At about 9 A.M. we started. Our road lay
at first over a ridge of high hills, from which we saw nothing of the
ship. We then crossed a sandy plain covered with the cactus, which
severely wounded my feet. Afterwards passed through some wooded
ravines, and over an extensive marsh intersected with brooks. Towards
the evening a horseman overtook us, who seeing the tired condition of
the steward, his feet bleeding, and also suffering from a gash on his
head, received whilst landing, carried him for about four miles, and
when his road lay in a different direction, gave our guide his gun,
and a piece of silver for us.
'The night being now dark, and all of us exhausted, we stopped at a
Bedouin encampment, and asked for shelter, which after some time was
granted. We had been walking about ten hours, and got over more than
thirty miles of broken ground, having stopped once for a few minutes
to pick the berries off some arbutus trees, being our only food since
breakfast till late that night. We were wet, coverless, and all except
myself shoeless.
'They gave us some maize-cake and milk. Seeing horses, I made them
understand that they would be well paid if they let us have them to
take us on to Biserta that night, when they made signs that the gates
were locked, but that we should have them in the morning.
'Thursday, December 23rd.--At daylight we set out, but none of us
could walk from swollen feet. After a ride of about fifteen miles,
sometimes fording streams, and at others nearly up to our horses'
knees in mud, we arrived about ten A.M., at Biserta, and went to the
house of our consular agent, an Italian, whom I immediately asked to
prepare a boat for Tunis.
'The boats here were all too small to send to the wreck, and for which
the wind was foul, with a fresh breeze. About 1 P.M. I started for
Tunis, and arrived about 11 P.M. at the Goletta, where I landed, and
sent to our Vice-Consul, who after some difficulty, owing to the port
regulations, came to see me, and tried to pass me through the gates,
but did not succeed. He promised to get two vessels ready, as
unfortunately there were no steamers here at the time of our arrival.
In one I meant to have sent Mr. Larcom to Galita, and the other I
intended to take to the wreck.
'Friday, December 24th.--At daylight, when the gates opened, I entered
a carriage, and drove up to our consul-general, who ordered his agent
to forward my views in every way, sending his son to hurry matters,
whilst he communicated with the Bey, who ordered his squadron to sea.
'Whilst my boat was preparing (a Maltese speronara, with a crew of
twelve men, selected for their knowledge of the coast,) I wrote two
letters, one to Malta, and the other to Lisbon, stating the loss of
the ship. Not having slept for four nights, and being thoroughly
tired, would account for the vague statement I sent. I then
breakfasted, and started about two P.M., having put on board such
provisions as my hurried departure admitted of--tea, coffee, biscuits,
and spirits, in case I should be fortunate enough to save anybody.
'Saturday, December 25th, on my passage, and at daylight on Sunday I
was close to the spot where the Avenger was wrecked, although there
was no broken or discoloured water to mark it. I cruised about till
satisfied she had either broken up or sunk. Whilst here I saw two
steamers (Lavoisier and Pasha) come up and cruise about Galita
together: a merchant ship, and a gun-boat of the Bey's, with which I
communicated, asking them to take me to Galita, which I wished to
examine personally, as also to speak the steamers, my own crew, with
whom I had great trouble, refusing to do so. They declined, when I
asked them to take half my crew out, and lend me two men, to which
request I also received a negative; so I returned to Tunis, arriving
at about 1 A.M. on the morning of Tuesday, December 28th. Sir Thomas
Reade took all to his house, and made it a home for us. I went on
board the French steamer Lavoisier, to thank the captain for his
assistance, and also waited on the governor for the same purpose.'
During the summer of the present year, the French government directed
Captain Bouchet Rivière to make a survey of the Sorelle. In
conclusion, therefore, we will give the following extract from that
officer's letter, as it throws some light upon the circumstances which
led to the loss of the Avenger:--
'The English frigate, Avenger, was lost on the two Sorelle; I saw
between the two heads of rocks, which are aptly named 'Sisters,' her
entire engine, two anchors, a shell gun, and some loose parts of the
wreck. I recovered and took on board some pieces of iron from the bed
of the engine, and a boarding cutlass. The engine lies in a medium
depth of ten metres (thirty-three feet).
'From information which has been given me by boats which saw the
Avenger at sea the day of her loss, and adding the observations which
I was enabled to make on the spot itself, I have every reason to
believe that the event happened in the following manner:--
'The Avenger had, during the day, run along the coast of Algeria, but
on the approach of night, being then north of Calle, and the weather
having suddenly become very bad, with a great deal of wind from the
north-west, the captain of the Avenger altered her course immediately
to the northward, in order not to be caught in the middle of a
dangerous channel. As soon as he thought that the ship had passed the
parallel of the Sorelle, he resumed his course to the eastward,
satisfied that he would pass several miles to the northward of them.
He had not calculated on the currents which I have found at this
dangerous spot, and which, with a north-west wind, set to the
south-eastward with a rapidity of about 3 miles an hour. The track of
the Avenger must have been materially altered by this cause. When she
steered east, she was only in the latitude of the Sorelle, and was
shortly afterwards, on a very dark night, shattered against these
rocks. The first shock must have been dreadful. It took place on the
point south-east of the north-west rock; when she cleared this rock,
which is at this spot thirteen feet below the surface, leaving a large
white furrow, she ran a hundred and sixty feet further, and struck on
the south-east rock, which is only about four feet (one metre twenty
centimetres) below the surface. She again marked the rock very
distinctly. The sea, which is often very rough on this spot, has left
nothing remaining but the massive part of the engine, where it can be
perceived between the two rocks, covered with thick weed.
'The dangerous Sorelle are formed by two tables of rocks, distant
about a hundred and sixty feet from each other, and separated by a
channel of a medium depth of thirty-nine to forty-nine feet (twelve to
fifteen metres). These two tables of rocks extend from the north-west
to the south-east. The north-west one has a diameter of 66 English
feet (twenty metres), its highest point is to the eastward, 16 feet
under water (five metres). The southeastern has a diameter of 197 feet
(sixty metres), and its highest point is only at a depth of 4 feet.
This last point is situated, according to my observations, which agree
with the position laid down in the chart of Admiral Berard, in 37° 24'
of north latitude, and 6° 16' 25" of east longitude from Paris, (or 8°
36' 45" east of Greenwich); 17'.4 miles S. 65° 15' W. of the east
point of the Island of Galita, and 27'.3 miles N. 0° 30' E. of Cape
Roux.'
The fate of the Avenger leads to many sad reflections. The last of the
wrecks described in this volume, one of yesterday, as it were, was
more disastrous than many others. It is painful to contemplate the
scene of dismay, when the ship struck, so unlike the presence of mind
and calm deportment which we have recorded on similar occasions. But
every allowance is to be made for the panic which followed a
catastrophe so sudden and so overwhelming. The night was dark and
tempestuous, the sea was running high, and all the elements were in a
state of uproar. The paralyzing effect of this accumulation of horrors
appears in the fact, that even after the small party of eight had so
far secured their preservation as to be in possession of the cutter,
and were within sight of the Island of Galita, two of them were found
to be bereft of their reason.
The first crash, and the rapid plunge of the ship into the gulf that
opened for her, and the loss of their captain among the first that
perished, left the crew without that guidance and control to which
seamen are in the habit of looking for support.
But though we have to regret the consternation that prevailed, there
was no gross neglect or misconduct to throw a darker shade over the
last hours of the Avenger. Captain Napier had been in consultation in
his cabin with the master and second-master, examining the charts, and
had also been on deck, giving directions to the officer of the watch,
but a short time before the first alarm. When the panic was at its
height, there was no act of dastardly selfishness for personal
preservation, to the disregard of the safety of others. The officers
are not accused of losing their composure. Lieut. Marryat is stated to
have been 'calm and self-possessed;' and Mr. Rooke's strenuous efforts
to lower the cutter, and his manly resolution to remain by the ship,
as long as there was any chance of saving the lives of some of the
survivors, attest his devotion to his duty to the very last.
The French officer, Captain Bouchier Rivière, who made a survey of the
Sorelle after the wreck, and who deliberately considered all the
circumstances, imputes no blame to the officers of the Avenger, but
generously accounts for the misfortune by referring to the dangers of
the spot, the force of the currents, the wildness of the weather, and
the darkness of the night. 'The first shock,' says he, 'must have been
dreadful.'
It would have been humiliating and afflicting, had this record of the
Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy, in which there is so much to admire,
been closed with the details of a calamity in any way disgraceful to
the service. Truth has required that the words '_dismay_' and
'_panic_' should be used in the foregoing relation; but the terrible
suddenness of the event, the instantaneous shock which broke up the
Avenger in a moment, without the preparatory warning of 'breakers
ahead,' or the previous notice of rocks or shoals in sight, will more
than account for the helplessness to which the crew were reduced.
They had not time to brace up their shattered nerves. The noble
bearing of the two lieutenants, Rooke and Marryat, cool as they were,
and in full command of their energies in the midst of crashing timbers
and perishing men, places the character of the British seaman in its
title light, and winds up our narrative with two more examples of
naval heroism.