H.M.S. “EURYDICE” ON HER BEAM-ENDS JUST AFTER THE SQUALL.
The court-martial which assembled on the 27th of August, 1878, on board the Duke of Wellington flagship, under the presidency of Admiral Fanshawe, C.B., Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth, reported that the ship had foundered from pressure of wind upon her sails during a sudden and exceptionally dense snowstorm, which overtook her when its approach was partially hidden by the proximity of the ship to high land. “Some of the upper half-ports on the main-deck were open at the time, which materially conduced [pg 229]to the catastrophe; but the court considers that the upper half-ports having been open was justifiable and usual under the state of the wind and weather up to the time of the actual occurrence of the storm.” The finding of the court-martial mentioned the fact that the captain was frequently on deck during the afternoon; and attributed blame to no one on board. It considered the ship, which had had ten years’ sea service, to have been thoroughly stable. A large number of other authorities, however, thought very differently—that she was top-heavy, and that she was undoubtedly carrying too much sail.
After exactly twenty-three weeks from the day of her foundering the Eurydice was, on Sunday, the 1st of September, safely towed into Portsmouth harbour. “As an example of perseverance and determination to succeed, the recovery of the ship is unique. The elements, which throughout the operations may truly be said to have fought against the efforts to float her being successful, made a final attempt to render those endeavours abortive on the Thursday night and Friday morning, with such effect that the Admiralty deemed it inexpedient that further attempts should be made, and had even gone to the extent of ordering her to be taken to pieces where she lay. Rear-Admiral Foley, and those who had so ably and perseveringly worked with him, were, however, reluctant to abandon the attempt to recover the ship, and he pledged himself that he would undertake to bring her into harbour. This pledge was redeemed.”[58] The divers throughout the operations could work only at slack tides and in very fine weather, the under-currents on the Isle of Wight coast being exceptionally strong.
The Eurydice lay at first in seven fathoms and a half (forty-five feet) of water, and to this must be added eight or nine feet of mud into which the wreck was embedded. Strong wire ropes were attached to the inner sides of the ports; the other ends of the ropes were made fast to the four floating hulls placed over and across the Eurydice, and when everything was ready and the tide at its lowest ebb, the process of pinning down was commenced—that is, the ropes were hauled “taut,” and made fast to the lifting vessels, so that as the tide gradually rose to its highest point the whole mass of lighters with the sunken vessel lifted as well. Then it was that the steam-tugs took up their positions, and towed the ill-fated craft towards shallower water, till she was left on a bank under the Culver cliff, with one side and her upper deck above the water at low tide. Even yet the efforts to float her were interfered with. Frequently all would be ready for lifting, when the sea would roughen, and everything have to be abandoned, the lighters returning to Portsmouth. It was raised partially in August, 1878, after four months’ continuous labour. After lying for a few days under the Culver cliff, the Eurydice was again sufficiently lifted to clear the bottom, and towed together with the lifting vessels to St. Helen’s Sands. When lifted finally, and towed to Portsmouth by the Grinder, she had two tugs on her port side and one on her starboard, with their steam-pumps working, and constantly pumping her hold.
Brighton—“London by the Sea-side” as it is often styled—is to many one of the most fascinating of the English watering-places. It is both popular and fashionable, the resort [pg 230]alike of the masses and of the “upper ten.” Its position on the sea is charming, while at an easy distance are any number of pleasant sea-coast and inland resorts. It has sprung up from a little fishing-village to a town of at least 120,000 souls. One feature of the place is the solidity and elegance of its public and private buildings, while its streets are the best kept in the whole kingdom. It extends, with its suburbs Kemp Town and Cliftonville, for four miles along the coast, and is in great part defended by a sea-wall. The celebrated chain-pier is 1,130 feet in length; while its Aquarium, already described in the proper place, is the finest in the world.
The climate of Brighton is temperate and mild both summer and winter, in the latter season resembling that of Naples; and to these facts is doubtless due its great success as a resort for the invalid, debilitated, or fagged-out business man. Capital bathing, boating, and yachting, are all at the command of the visitor; there are no finer promenades anywhere; while riding or driving on the Downs, or to the neighbouring rural retreats (among them that most beautiful of England’s ancestral homes, Arundel), is a treat open to all whose circumstances are moderately easy. In the whirl and din of fashionable life there one is apt to forget its practical connection with the sea, but it possesses a perfect fleet of mackerel and herring boats, and several lifeboats, belonging to the Lifeboat Institution, the Humane Society, and the town.
BRIGHTON.
In the year 1833, at New Stoke, near Arundel, the remains of an ancient boat were discovered in the bed of what was formerly a creek running into the river Arun. It had been constructed of half the trunk of an oak tree, hollowed out as the Indians of North-west America do to-day. It was thirty-five feet four inches in length, by four feet six inches. In 1822, a still larger oak boat was found in the bed of the river Rother, near Maltham, Kent, which was sixty-three feet by fifteen feet, half decked, caulked with moss, and had carried at least one mast.
These discoveries sink into insignificance with that made in 1880 on the farm of Gokstad, not far from Sandefjord, a favourite watering-place of the Norwegians. A hill or mound, which tradition pointed out as the burial-place of some mighty king or chief, was found to contain the entire hull of an old ship of the Viking days. It is of course a very venerable relic, being probably more than 1,000 years old. The Gokstad vessel, built entirely of oak, is seventy-five feet long between stem and stern, and sixteen feet broad amidships; and appears to be of a low build, drawing only five feet. The deals were riveted together by iron nails; and the ribs, of which there are twenty, are connected with the deals at the top by rivets, but at the bottom with ties. Amidships, in the bottom of the ship, is a heavy beam, both ends of which are fashioned in the shape of a fish’s tail. This beam served as a support for the mast, of which there is still a piece standing in its place; while the upper part, which had been cut off, was found in the vessel. The mast appears to have been about twenty-two feet long. Remains of two or three small boats were found; some pieces inside the ship, and some pieces close to it. In the fore part of the vessel a large copper kettle and water-cask were also found, with remains of sails and ropes, and some large oars. She had been built for sixteen oars. A hundred wooden shields had been once placed in a row under the gunwale of the ship, corresponding to the number of the crew, the centre pieces of iron, or bosses, still remaining. The arrangement of the shields is the same as that in the famous Bayeux tapestry, on which [pg 231]are represented (among other things) the ships of William the Conqueror. The old vessel had been used as the last resting-place of a great Viking. It was their custom so to bury their chiefs. The ship was usually placed with its stem towards the sea, so that when Odin, the Jove of the northern mythology, should call the gallant chief, he could set sail straight off land for Valhalla, the heaven of his hopes.