From London to Land's End: and Two Letters from the "Journey through England by a Gentleman"Defoe, Daniel
History
From London to Land's End: and Two Letters from the "Journey through England by a Gentleman"
Defoe, Daniel
England -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
"In this dreadful condition (they driving, I say, out of the harbour)
their first and chief care was to go clear of the rocks which lie on
either side the harbour's mouth, and which they performed pretty well.
Then, seeing no remedy, they consulted what to do next. They could carry
no sail at first--no, not a knot; nor do anything but run away afore it.
The only thing they had to think on was to keep her out at sea as far as
they could, for fear of a point of land called the Dead Man's Head, which
lies to the eastward of Falmouth Haven; and then, if they could escape
the land, thought to run in for Plymouth next morning, so, if possible,
to save their lives.
"In this frighted condition they drove away at a prodigious rate, having
sometimes the bonnet of their foresail a little out, but the yard lowered
almost to the deck--sometimes the ship almost under water, and sometimes
above, keeping still in the offing, for fear of the land, till they might
see daylight. But when the day broke they found they were to think no
more of Plymouth, for they were far enough beyond it; and the first land
they made was Peverel Point, being the southernmost land of the Isle of
Purbeck, in Dorsetshire, and a little to the westward of the Isle of
Wight; so that now they were in a terrible consternation, and driving
still at a prodigious rate. By seven o'clock they found themselves
broadside of the Isle of Wight.
"Here they consulted again what to do to save their lives. One of the
boys was for running her into the Downs; but the man objected that,
having no anchor or cable nor boat to go on shore with, and the storm
blowing off shore in the Downs, they should be inevitably blown off and
lost upon the unfortunate Goodwin--which, it seems, the man had been on
once before and narrowly escaped.
"Now came the last consultation for their lives. The other of the boys
said he had been in a certain creek in the Isle of Wight, where, between
the rocks, he knew there was room to run the ship in, and at least to
save their lives, and that he saw the place just that moment; so he
desired the man to let him have the helm, and he would do his best and
venture it. The man gave him the helm, and he stood directly in among
the rocks, the people standing on the shore thinking they were mad, and
that they would in a few minutes be dashed in a thousand pieces.
"But when they came nearer, and the people found they steered as if they
knew the place, they made signals to them to direct them as well as they
could, and the young bold fellow run her into a small cove, where she
stuck fast, as it were, between the rocks on both sides, there being but
just room enough for the breadth of the ship. The ship indeed, giving
two or three knocks, staved and sunk, but the man and the two youths
jumped ashore and were safe; and the lading, being tin, was afterwards
secured.
"N.B.--The merchants very well rewarded the three sailors, especially the
lad that ran her into that place."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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