The Sun.
London, England, 1807-01-09 00:00:00

ASTRJEA FRIGATE,' CAPT. DUNBAR.

The perils which this Frigate encountered, and
the imminent destruction which for nine hours
threatened to -.overwhell-n her, and which, in, fa6t,
awaited her dpring the remainder of Sher voyage,
can be but iniperfeelly understood from any thing
that the- Public Prints hare yet related upon this
sUbjed.' The letter-That we have subjoined describes,
with affealing minuteness, the incidents of this dan-
gerous and almost
.fatal voyage :
" Et.SINEUR, DEC. 1, 1806.—After a tremendous
passage, niis description of. which can 7give any 'ade-
quate idea of its horrors, the Astroca Frigate arrived
here, I• may say, a:most a total wreck. We had
little to complain of, considering the season of-the
year and the dreary region we were approach-
ine from the time we left the English coast till
er •
Friday. last, when •we made the Naze of Norway,
which is the southern part of that' country:
We had the shore upon the larboard hand, a good
breeze of wind, and were going at 'the rate of ten
knots, when 011: a sudden, without the smallest in-
dication that .such an,evil was impending, one of.
the most terrible gales of wind broke upon us that
the oldest seaman on board ever witnessed. The roar -
of its sudden burst is yet in my ears., 'Tremendous
as the tempest was, the admirable discipline of the
Ship, and the alertness of our men, were able to
meet it with every exertion that, under such a dif-
ficulty, it was possible to make ; but the weight of
the storm and its rapidity hdd disabled. our rigging'
considerably ; and it was only Such a: crew as we •
had, that, under Providence, was able to work our
safety. For a time we , apprehended that our fate
was inevitable, and that the Astrcea was destined
,
to leave her ribs onethe shoals of .Norway ;' but we
• were reserved for new and sfill'inore alarming dan-
gers, though, thank God,. ultimately for safety.
We disengaged the
.Vessel from the shore with in-
finite difficulty, and pursuing our course,. we had to
encounter -the risk of touching upon the..Skaws,
which are off the point of Jutland; and which are',
objects of terror to the best Pilots even in the finest
weather. .With the best preparations, that precau-
tion and seamanship could take; every man looking-
out that was -possiblesounding continually—and
the Master and Pilot as vigilant as our Officers and
Men were strenuous and
,aaive, we escaped the
Skaws and got into the Cattegat. Here our confi-
dence was - somewhat restored, and the piercing
cold, and the furious gale that was blowing, were
scarcely inconveniencies, when we relieded upon
what we had escaped. In this disposition our spi-
rits felt relieved, though there was not any' material-
abatement of our caution—our Pilot did not seem to
give us much cause for apprehension, and we were
pursuing our course briklye when, to our dismay,
the frigate struck h—We found ourselves upon e
reef of rocks,,perbaps those called the New Dan-
gers,' about three miles from the.lsland of Anholte.
and about nine miles, as well as I can 4uess, from
any other shore. It will requife some aid from the
fancy' of whoever has witnessed a scene of this:,
sort, to imagine our condition. We immediateli
hoisted signals, and fired guns of distress--'tint iii
vain. Not a soul from the shore put off to assist us
in any way. Several Vessels .passed us, indifferent
spectators of our distress, and insensible to every in-
vr,-. made to themeel our_ dreadful situation
their crews were as callous as the reef of
" All this time no effort was spared on board the
Astrtva that coolness and' seamanship cotild devise..
The mizen and mainmasts were cut away, the guns.
*ere thrown overboard, .as well as the stores,and
provisions to a considerable degiee. Still the Vessel
laboured hard, and the water was rushing through,
her bottom in a degree that left no man the hope of
'-being saved—before it gaiued considerably, a great
quantity of ballaSt was thrown over. At this awful
moment, it was only a British Man of War that
could 'exhibit so tioble a display of Cool and sober
heroisria. The conduCt of every man in the Ship
was fine beyond" all praise. Ait!iough impending •
death had levelled us all to a sei:6iiient of equality,
and though every man expected momentary en-
gulphmept, still not a voice. was heard but tin:cern-
inand •-f the Officer from one end el the Ship to the
other-,--not a face betrayed fear—not an instance of
• turbulent despair—every man was displaying in this
sort of passive courage as much heroism as if he
were grappled with an enemy. The miraculous
et-lofts made by the crew, with all the pumps, kept
the water from gaining wholly upon us ; and while
we were in the midst of all this exertion, to our,
astonishment, and to our horror, in some respeas,
.the Ship floated !—ludge of our situation, lightened •
even to the loss of some of our ballast, with only the
foremast standing, and the Vessel so damaged in the
bottom, as that it required all the pumps to prevent
the water/gaining to a fatal increase upon us !`Those
terriffic difficulties, however, 'only shewed the re-
sources of skill and courage. In an incredible
short time jury, 'main, and mizen-masts were rigged,
though only a few could be spared from the pumps;
and as the wind was fair, we took a farewell of the
reef that had been neatly so fatal to usi and 4C-,
length, exhausted almost to death, we arrived here
this day.

" During the'dreadful scene we had experienced*
Lord. HUTCHINSON 'arid his suitewere not inactive
assistants.- New as the danger was, they were as
composed under it al any person on board, thoue).
the expectation of safety was ahandonded by all. L
British Seamen wanted the force of example, they
would have it very amply in the amazing coolness
and ColleCtedness of Lord HUTCHINSON during the
whole of our danger, in which the force of his Lord-
ship's mind afforded some valuable suggestions.
His Lordship, I am sorry to say, has not escaped
the effeCts of Ms wiertions and privations for nearly
three days—he is gone on shore somewhat indis-
posed,

"'You will expect me to say something about the.
King of Prussia--there is. nothing known of him
here. The .French have perplexed the news of this'
place with such a mixture of lies and rumours, that
we know as little of mimic; events that happen, as,
you do at home. Whenever 'any thing of moment
6ccurs, you shal3 have a line, if the French do not
stop the Mails. Husain, I understand., is an unsafe
channel of conveyance, but I must try it."

The Norwich coach, which passed through Ips.•
wich on Cbristnms EV(I, carried to London 73 turkies,
har.2s, I 9 partridges, 59 capons, 86 pheasants,
70 wild-ducks, 64 widgeons, 4V dun birds, 100 rab-
bits, p 9 chines, aild 1281bs. sausages.