The Sun.
London, England, 1859-10-29 00:00:00

breakwater and shielding the light in a cloud of

foam and spray.
At last, after a most anxious night, the cold
dawn broke in a thin gray light, with sky and sea
mingled in a doubtful haze, till it was hard to say
where the water ended and the clouds began.
Above, all was thick and gloomy ; below, the water
seemed lashed to fury, and the waves came hissing
and writhing in, " curling their monstrous heads,"
and breaking upon the rocks like avalanches of
snow. It was, in truth, a very wild and dreary
scene. Over the lighthouse on the inner pier-head
the waves seemed to surge almost unimpeded, while
the breakwater itself was so completely hidden that
the tremendous jets of spray and foam which
cloaked it from end to end more resembled in their
distant boom and snowy clouds the constant dis-
charges of heavy artillery than 'the break of waves,
however dangerous. Within the very extremity
of the breakwater, where one would have thought
the Channel fleet might have ridden through any
(sale much damage had been done. High and dry
a
ashore, under Holyhead mountain, lay a fine bark,
and around her, in the same predicament, were
three smaller vessels. Out in the centre of the
harbour the tops of two slender tapering masts
showed where Captain Henry's beautiful schooner
yacht, the Mariquiti, had gone down bodily. Im-
mediately behind this was another and larger
vessel, which had apparently only escaped the same
fate by driving on the rocks, and which, with a
fierce sea breaking over its hull, and its jagged and
tattered sails blown out to riband streamers by the
wind, looked the very picture of a melancholy
wreck. Other vessels there were, too, which al-
though still afloat seemed very little better off than
those which were ashore, and which, dipping bows
under to the angry sea, appeared about to illus-
trate by fresh examples the force of the tempest
which now howled and worried round on all sides.
It was indeed what sailors call a " wicked" gale.
Very little could be distinguished through the
drifting snow, half rain, half cloud, which was
driving through the air. Only occasionally could
the headland to the north be seen, like a heavy.fog
bank, with the breakers surging up 100 feet into
the air as they came thundering in against the iron
coast. Round this point, as we afterwards learnt,
a still more dreadful scene was enacting, for here at
a place called Red Beach, the Royal Charter had
been driven ashore, and was then breaking up.
Beneath this headland, also, later in the day, as we
were informed, a smaller vessel stranded, and re-
mained amid the roaring surge, with the sailors
clinging to the rigging, waving their rags of shirts
aloft as signals of distress, beseeching the succour
which, alas, to such a place, could never come.
A.t 6 o'clock there were symptoms of the storm
breaking, and, as usual, the last gusts were the
worst, and the situation of the Great Eastern was a
matter of deep anxiety on the part of Captain Har-
rison and his officers. There was scarcely room to
.steam out, yet it was evident that, if the gale con-
tinued, it would be impossible for her to remain
much longer where she was. Inside the breakwater
the sea ran high, with waves of a deep yellow hue,
while the ocean without resembled hills of muddy
half-thawed snow, reflecting their whitish glare
upon the clouds above, as if the very laws of nature
had been reversed and light came from below.
Both wind and tide were rising, and as the great
billows came dashing in upon the massive frame-
work of timber which marked the end of the break-
water, it became a nice calculation which would
yield first, the timbers or the gale. Wave after
wave swept in upon the mass of stone and wood,
and seemed to explode in a cloud of smokelike
spray. Yet still the red light in the lighthouse
held on, and shone out cheerily above the desolate
and angry scene around. Sorely was it tried
minute after minute, and well must the framework
have been put together to hold aloof so long the
destruction which all could see was now inevitable.
At last, soon after 6 o'clock, a monstrous wave came
in upon the horizon. Nearer and nearer it rolled,
a white crest towering high above the green wall
of water as it reared up its monstrous bulk, and
seemed to gather might for one great rush upon its
prey. In another second the foam towered a hun-
dred feet over the head of the breakwater, and the
red light was seen no more, while the wave,
broken, but not disabled, came tearing on, hurling
aloft, as if in triumph, a black mass of timbers,
which seemed like rocks among the seething waters.
This was introducing, so to speak, the thin end of
the wedge, for the work of demolition once com-
menced went rapidly forward, and the massive
timbers began to disappear Is3' a hundred feet and
more at a time, melting away into the angry sea
like, a mere fretwork of sugar-candy. The cranes
and machinery at the top dropped off into the water
one by one, as if the sea possessed the properties of
an universal solvent ; for when once the waters
covered them obstacles were seen no more. Some
lengths of framework, however, held out long and
gallantly, resisting every effort to overthrow them,
till the tide was at its height, and at last they too
disappeared, some in splinters and elkips like fire-
wood as the beams were rent to pieces, some in
great angular masses, as if an island of timber had
come to sea. The whole harbour was covered
with such rafts, till their black masses showed
up like reefs of rock in all directions. Still
the storm swept on as wild as ever, and where the
breakwater makes that most injudicious inward
curve and forms a concave surface for the sea to
act on the waves broke high and fiercely, even here
damaging the cranes upon the high scaffolding, and
threatening a clean breach into the harbour.
This scene of destruction- was, for the time it
lasted, as grand and awful a sight as can be well
conceived. The great waves not only looked irre-
sistible, but showed themselves to be so in sad and
sober earnest, and everything went down like sand
before their terrific onset. Matters now began to
look very bad, and such tremendous evidences of
danger•on the part of the wind and sea were by no
means overlooked by those on board the Great
Eastern. In fact, it was with most considerable
anxiety that Captain Harrison saw the turn affairs
were taking, for the wind was now dead from the
northeast, and the whole sweep of the Channel
was pouring into the harbour. Some profitable
bargains might have been made in Great Eastern
shares had the shareholders been on board and seen
the state of the weather—the lee-shore behind, and
th 3 timber work of the breakwater (the great and
only shield ahead) disappearing by hundreds of
yards at a time. Yet still the Great Eastern rode
out lightly for her bulk, and without a sign of
dragging, though the chains apparently could bear
nothing more. The whole harbour was now one
immense mass of wreck-wood, the huge piles
tumbling over and over one another, and rearing
up 15 and 20 feet from the water, as the waves
tossed them to and fro like playthings. The sea
had set in, too, so violently that it was necessary
at once to do something to relieve the ship from the
strain upon the cables, and to effect this the screw
was set to work. But here an obstacle intervened
of the most serious kind, as the masses of timber-
wreck were round the ship, going down upon the
screw at every minute, and once or twice so foul-
ing it as to force the engines to a dead stop. To
clear these it was necessary to put the helm bard
a-port, though this was only a choice of evils, as the
vessel's head payed round and threatened soon to
foul the anchor chains. The latter accident, in
fact, took place at last, and the heaviest
anchor and longest scope of cable on the star-
board bow appeared to be doing nothing
to retain the vessel, while the" small anchor ap-
peared to b© doing too much, and its cable
flipped out of the water with every surge in a
startling and ominous manner.
Towards 8 or 9 o'clock the wind went round more
to the N.E., sending in a beam swell, to which the
Great Eastern began to roll very heavily. As the
surge swept in, the position of the vessel hourly
became worse, and at last, at 10 o'clock, Captain
Harrison had no alternative but to try and raise
the heaviest anchor, get the vessel's head more
under the lee of the breakwater, and then let it go
again. This was a difficult and most critical task,
for every part of the harbour was now so completely
covered with drifting beams that the screw could
on'y be used with the utmost caution. The
paddles, unless in ease of a most dangerous emer-
gency, could not be used at all, as the timbers
would of course knock the floats to pieces. Gradu-
ally, therefore, the Great Eastern was brought up
to her starboard anchor, though with the utmost
difficulty. Before the screw could well get play it
was fouled and had to stop. Directly this occurred
the steam from the screw boilers was let into the
paddle engines, which in turn went ahead, till the
propeller was free and able to work again. At
last, after some time, the anchor was under the
bow, the slack chain hove in, and the huge mass-of
iron got up to the bow ready for letting go again
in a better berth. But the wind now allowed no
choice of situations. The vessel had partly swim,.
off into a beam sea, which was then sweeping'
over and past the Breakwater with awful force,
and the Great Eastern began to roll quickly and
heavily. In spite of the relief afforded by the
screw, the cable of the remaining anchor kept taut-
ening more and more, until at last, at about half-
past 10, it sprang like a cord out of the water, and
in another moment the Great Eastern was adrift,
rolling and tumbling like a drunken ship towards
the shore. So quiet and orderly was everythini,
when this most alarming; incident took place, that
very few knew what had' really happened, though
all could pretty well guess by the heavy lurches of
the vessel that something had indeed gone wrong.
Captain Harrison and Mr. Kett were forward, and
in an instant all was ready for letting go a second
heavy anchor, while word was passed to go ahead
with the screw, for the great ship, lurching from
side to side was making rapidly for shore.,
The second anchor was let go and the screw moved