This convoy consisted of one hundred and twenty sail, leaving only twelve vessels at Carlshamn, which were a part of the St. George's convoy that could not obtain anchors and cables. They were off Falsterbo on the 20th of December, when the wind, which had been northerly, shifted to the S.W.; on the 23rd they reached Elsineur Roads, and on the 28th Gothenburg, whence they sailed in company with Rear-admiral Hope in the Ardent, who had thus finished the service of the Baltic for the season. Colonel Dornberg, who had been employed on the Continent confidentially, had ascertained that Prussia would be forced to join France against Russia, therefore the Government transports with arms intended for their assistance were sent back, and formed part of the Hero's unfortunate convoy. The Victory, after parting with the St. George, was detained by baffling winds and thick weather. Fortunately on the 21st good altitudes of the sun were obtained for the chronometers, and thereby the situation of the fleet was determined before the storm began on the 22nd: at noon it blew a strong gale from N.W. (by compass); Leostoff bore N. 31, W. 203 miles, the Texel S. 136 miles; but an allowance of two points was made for what was called _indraft_, and the course steered was S.W. by W. On the 23rd the storm increased with inconceivable violence: the Victory was scudding under close-reefed main-top-sail. At noon the signal was made for longitude, when it appeared that the reckoning of the whole fleet was much to the westward of the Victory, particularly the Vigo, no less than eighty-four miles; but none of the ships had observations for the chronometers, and therefore the commander-in-chief determined on running by the reckoning of his own ship; and had he not done so, the whole fleet would have shared the fate of the Hero in the same spot! At ten P.M. soundings were struck on the broad fourteen, which cleared up all doubts on the subject; on the next day the gale moderated, the fleet passed the Gallopere light and anchored to stop tide; on Christmas-day passed down Channel, and in the evening anchored in St. Helen's. I may here observe with propriety, that I have since found the deviation from the true course, which by pilots and masters of ships had been attributed to _indraft_, &c. was occasioned entirely by the _deviation_ of the magnetic needle when steering to the S.W. the point on which the attraction found in almost every ship was, by a series of experiments, established to be, from one to two points; (see Ross's voyage 1818;) while it is notorious that if the ship was standing N.E. the opposite point, it had been always found that not only no allowance for _indraft_ was necessary, but that the error in the reckoning was on the opposite way; and we therefore conclude that many ships have been lost for want of making the necessary allowance for the _deviation_ of the compass in steering across the North Sea, in a storm from N.W.