The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-30 00:00:00

Sate when the furious storm is near

The fishermen of Ireland are a hardy and adventurous
race, to whom the necessity of encountering the dangers
that are inseparable from a steep, rocky, and jagged coast,
have become habitual. Although the weather was threaten-
ing and the sea rather heavy, we passed, at a distance of six
or seven miles from the land, an open boat pulled by four
men—so diminutive a piece of navigation, that she frequently
disappeared from our view in the hollow of the waves. Soon
afterwards we saw another, with six rowers, who lay on their
oars to look at us. They appeared to be regular sons of the
turf, and had each a short tobacco-pipe, venerably disco-
loured with use, stuck in the cord or rope-yarn that served
sa a hatband.

Dashing along the indented shore, we passed Gaily Head,
Glandore Bay and harbour, and Castlehaven, a little to the
westward of which last, rising from the sea, are the two re-
markable rocks called the Stags, perpendicular basaltic for-
=Lions, strongly resembling two old castles, with each a
square tower, battlements, and bastions. Cape Clear was
now visible, on a small island, forming (when seen from the
seaward)—with another of larger size, between it and the
main land, called Innisherkin—the most southern point or
promontory of Ireland. The Fastnet Rock, to the south-
west of the Cape, and rising in solitary sulkiness in the ocean,
a considerable distance from the land, was now in view, and
we steered outside of so ugly a customer.
The distance from Liverpool to Cape Clear is about 303
nautical miles, and this we had accomplished in about 37
hours. We had upwards of 200 miles to run thence to Li-
merick, Cork being about the " half-way house " ; and, had
the weather continued moderate, we should have accom-
plished the trip in 52 to 5I hours, including the navigation
of the Shannon. It was, however, otherwise ordered ; and
it may be here remarked, that the trip from England to Li-
merick is by coasting sailors denominated " the American
voyage," from its being considered by them as perilous, on
the average of passages, as crossing the Atlantic itself.
Cape Clear is the last point of land, in Europe, which many
a seaman and passenger beholds with " long and lingering
look," when leaving his native shores ; and often the first
he joyfully descries when homeward bound, just before
" For England, when, with fav'ring gale,
The gallant ship up channel steers."
The whole of the western coast of Ireland thence to Urris
Head, and even to Malin, at the northern extremity of the
island, is indented by numerous bays, estuaries, or arms of
the sea, of various form and extent, penetrating the land
eastwardly, and dividing it into a variety of fantastically-
formed peninsulas and headlands, round which are copiously
strewed, in many parts, small islands and rocks, of a steep
and dangerous character. It is, for the most part, as are
the islets, an iron-bound coast, composed of precipitous
limestone rocks, of a wild and rugged aspect, that have for
ages withstood the fierce and frequent assaults of the Atlan-
tic. The prevailing gales from the westward here lash the
wide expanse of waters into steep and angry waves, that with
deafening roar spend their fury amidst the beetling cliffs
and caverned recesses of this stupendous and protecting
sea-wall. During a storm from any point between the
S.W.-and N.W. (inclusive), the sea presents, from the emi-
nences that overlook it, a sight at once fearful and sublime ;
as I shall hereafter more particularly describe in noticing a
short visit to Kilkee, a watering-place north of the estuary
of the Shannon. Beset, too, with many sunken as well as
visible isolated rocks, this coast is highly perilous to the
mariner if it becomes a lee shore ; for though there are many
natural havens, they are mostly what are called "blind har-
bours," from its being difficult or impossible to distinguish
their entrances with certainty during gales, when the land is
generally covered with thick and deceptive haze. The danger
is increased by the backset, from the rugged shore, of the
waves,—which, saving in the more placid summer months,
have seldom time to subside after one gale before they are
roused by another, probably from another point of the corn-
pass,—which produces a cross and precipitous sea, often more
trying for vessels than the long roll, in one direction, of the
outward, unimpeded ocean during the severest storm. Ire-
land, indeed, may, with reference to its western coast, be
termed the great breakwater of England, at least from the
Clyde to the British Channel; and there can be no doubt,
that but for that island the port of Liverpool, in particular,
would be blocked up with sand, and much of the low land to
the north of it be encroached upon by the ocean.

Shaping our course, when off Mizen Head, to the N.W.,
we successsively passed, before nightfall, the mouth of Bantry
Bay, historically associated with the purposed descent of the
French armament, many years ago, upon that part of the
Irish coast, and the disastrous loss of nearly the whole of
the ships employed in that reckless and unsuccessful expedi-
tion. The island of Dursey, the western termination of the
county of Cork, forms the northern outer point bounding
this arm of the sea, near which are three remarkable rocks,
the Bull, the Cow, and Calf. Beyond them is the wide
estuary of the Kenmare River, and further north is Bailin-
skellegs Bay, in South Kerry.
Towards dark, sombre clouds, of a lurid hue, began to
muster in the south-west, but the evening was otherwise fine,
with a northerly wind, and the vessel steamed gallantly
along the coast. We saw the light on the larger of the
Skelligs Rocks about ten o'clock, and passed outside of
them. We were then in a fair way for making the Shannon
early next day ; but about two o'clock in the morning
(Saturday) the wind chopped round to the south-west, and
shortly afterwards increased to a gale. Had we had a ba-
rometer on board, we should, in all probability, have been
induced, by its previous indication, to make Valentia, in
Dingle Bay, or some other neighbouring harbour. As it
was, Captain Kennedy was reminded of the marriage of
Venus and the Moon. The wind, acting as the previous
swell, soon produced a heavy cross sea ; and Captain Christie,
(knowing that the vessel, from her light draught, suited for
river navigation, would have less hold of the water than a
seagoing ship, and calculating upon the chances of the wind
veering to a less favourable point, and probably drifting us
upon a lee shore) prudently stood out from the land, during
night, to obtain a safe offing. The vessel (to use a maritime
phrase) behaved admirably; though so cross and heavy was
the sea, and so furious the gale, which finally increased to a
hurricane, that the hull and engines were put to the severest
test. Soon after 3 o'clock some high land was seen, supposed
to be near Valentia, but too indistinctly defined to be identi-
fied. The spray dashed over the ship in continued sheets ; but
such was her buoyancy that she roselike a duck, and shipped
but few seas. From four o'clock in the morning till about ten,
the storm continued without abatement, and the waves, which
were broken and steep, rose mountains high. It might be
saimd,oisntdoefed,intyhattliesea " yawned ed around us like a hell,"
begun
threatening every moment to engulph us.
fellow-passengers, and several of the men on
board, although they had frequently been afloat, had, before
sore destroyer of
the storm,to theentieoeylm er,
t, direan effects of
toaft
070-
fs sea-sickness,
mentalness thatand
on the top. of
bodily energ The violent tossing of the ship—now mount-
ingdescent into the a huge wave, now plunging down the deep
abyss below, and simultaneously pitching
from side to side—was
on by
that, for some hours, no one
could, without holding
iThsomething, keep his feet on the
deck or in the cabin; and
" cast up their accounts," theoyulahy my companions did not
listless and cheerless on
the sofas, employing such arts they
'9le rc
Irvailable (though not
dmanrgoellrionugs offs e
ao
sn o t o
, n
always effectual) to prevent themselves
the floor,—a casualty which, even at that°