‘The _Mary_ on the Goodwin-Sands was blown, And all her Sailors perished but one, Who on a piece of wreck was wash’d aboard The _Sterling-Castle_, and to life restor’d. ‘Thus while a Sinking in the Sand she lay, Admiral Beaumont to his men did say, You that can Swim may try your lives to save, For no reliefe we now can hope to have. ‘Then presently the Ship in pieces Split, And he himself upon a plank did sit, Floating a while with Waves encompass’d round, But was wash’d off and in the Tempest drown’d. ‘The warlike _Sterling-Castle_ perish’d then, And all her crew Excepting Eight Men, Who by God’s providence got safe ashore, Amongst whom was the Man preserv’d before. ‘Twice cast away, and twice deliver’d too, Here may we see what the Good God can do, Nay a third time to shew his Mercies more, The Boat was lost that carried him to shore. ‘The _Restoration_ and _Northumberland_, Ere morning light did sink into the sand, And of eight Hundred Souls of both their Crews, Not one escap’d to tell the dreadful news. ‘But what was yet more Mournful you shall hear On board the former as it doth appear, The Captain had his Wife and Children got, Which were seen after on the Seas to Float. ‘Nay, and in several other Ships besides, There many Women with their Husbands died, Many poor Children are left Fatherless, And many Widdows mourning in distress. ‘Of men of war Eleven Sail was lost, Of Merchant men two hundred on our Coast, Beside the Damage done to many more, And seven Thousand Sailors lost therefore.’ Over 6,000_l._ was collected for the widows and orphans who perished in the storm. The order authorising a collection for this purpose is printed by Mr. W. A. Bewes in his _Church Briefs_, and he also reprints the ballad quoted above (p. 239). A disaster very little less in its magnitude was the casting away of Sir Clowdisley Shovell on the rocks of the Scilly Islands upon the night of October 22, 1707. The Association, 96, which was Shovell’s flagship; the Eagle, 70; the Romney, 50; and the Firebrand fireship, were totally lost; two others, the Phoenix and the St. George, struck also, but came off without breaking up (Clowes, ii. 411). The best account of the incident is to be found in a pamphlet by Mr. J. H. Cooke, entitled _The Shipwreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovell_, read at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, February 1, 1885, and printed at Gloucester in the same year. No contemporary ballad on Shovell’s fate has survived, but the British Museum contains _A New Elegy on the Lamented Death of Sir Cloudesley Shovell_, from which the following lines are derived: ‘The bulging Ship upon the Shore stuck fast, And scarce two Minutes but she struck her last: Was quite o’rewhelm’d with the next rolling Wave. Aid and Endeavours were in vain to save Whom Fate had destin’d to a Watery Grave.