The Hidden Sands, almost the only real Dread of a Sailor, and by which till the Channels between them were found out, our Eastern Coast must be really unpassable, now serve to make Harbours: and _Yarmouth_ Road was made a safe Place for Shipping by them. Nay, when _Portsmouth_, _Plymouth_, and other good Harbours would not defend our Ships in the Violent Tempest we are treating of, here was the least Damage done of any Place in _England_, considering the Number of Ships which lay at Anchor, and the Openness of the Place. So that upon the whole it seems plain to me, that all the dismal things the Ancients told us of _Britain_, and her terrible Shores, arose from the Infancy of Marine Knowledge, and the Weakness of the Sailor's Courage. Not but that I readily allow we are more subject to bad Weather and hard Gales of Wind than the Coasts of _Spain_, _Italy_, and _Barbary_. But if this be allow'd, our Improvement in the Art of Building Ships is so considerable, our Vessels are so prepar'd to ride out the most violent Storms, that the Fury of the Sea is the least thing our Sailors fear: Keep them but from _a Lee Shore_, or touching upon a Sand, they'll venture all the rest: and nothing is a greater satisfaction to them, if they have a Storm in view, than a sound Bottom and good _Sea-room_. From hence it comes to pass, that such Winds as in those Days wou'd have pass'd for Storms, are called only a _Fresh-gale_, or _Blowing hard_. If it blows enough to fright a South Country Sailor, we laugh at it: and if our Sailors bald Terms were set down in a Table of Degrees, it will explain what we mean. _Stark Calm._ | _A Top-sail Gale._ _Calm Weather._ | _Blows fresh._ _Little Wind._ | _A hard Gale of Wind._ _A fine Breeze._ | _A Fret of Wind._ _A small Gale._ | _A Storm._ _A fresh Gale._ | _A Tempest._ Just half these Tarpawlin Articles, I presume, would have pass'd in those Days for a Storm; and that our Sailors call a Top-sail Gale would have drove the Navigators of those Ages into Harbours: when our Sailors reef a Top-sail, they would have handed all their Sails; and when we go under a main Course, they would have run _afore it_ for Life to the next Port they could make: when our _Hard Gale_ blows, they would have cried a Tempest; and about the _Fret of Wind_ they would be all at their Prayers.