Eastbourne and its Quiet Charms—Hastings—Its Fishermen—The Battle of Hastings—Loss of the Grosser Kurfürst—The Collision—The Catastrophe—Dover—The Castle—Shakespeare’s Cliff—“O’er the Downs so free”—St. Margaret’s Bay—Kingsdown—Deal—A Deed of Daring—Ramsgate and Margate—The Floating Light on the Goodwin Sands—Ballantyne’s Voluntary Imprisonment—His Experiences—The Craft—The Light—One Thousand Wild Ducks caught—A Signal from the “South Sand Head”—The Answer—Life on Board.
The coast north-east from Beachy Head is rugged and interesting till Eastbourne is reached, one of the quietest and prettiest of the south-coast watering-places, and one which has been very greatly improved of late by the lavish expenditure of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, the principal landowner in the neighbourhood. Some of the promenades are planted with trees à la boulevard. The bathing and boating are both excellent; while in the neighbourhood are the ruins of Pevensey, an old Norman castle, and Hurstmonceaux, a red-brick castle of the mediæval period, ivy-and creeper-covered, and embowered in trees. It is the delight of artists, who annually besiege it in great numbers. Eastbourne has some hundred fishermen [pg 236]engaged in the herring and mackerel fisheries. They have a benefit association or club, into which they pay a monthly subscription, and when their nets are damaged or lost a part of the money needed to repair or replace them is found. There is also a lifeboat, which has done excellent work.
And next in sequence comes historical Hastings, which extends for near a mile along the sea at the present time, or, if we include the fashionable town of St. Leonard’s-on-Sea, its sea front must be reckoned at nearly three miles. Many readers will be familiar with the charming glen or vale in which it is situated, and which opens to the sea on the south. Hastings is otherwise sheltered by high hills and cliffs, and has a warm, even, and yet bracing climate; for salubrity it will rank with any of the popular sea-side resorts. It has a steady population of about 35,000, of whom 700 are fishermen and boatmen. In one week the herring catch has been worth £5,000. A boat fitted for the herring or mackerel season is worth £350, and for trawling £200. The mackerel season commences in April and continues till the latter end of July, while the trawling commences and ends two or two and a half months later. The herring season commences in September and ends in the latter part of November. There is a church at Hastings, under the eastern cliffs, for the special accommodation of fishermen.
The famous battle of Hastings was fought A.D. 1066, Oct. 14. The alarm sounded, both parties immediately prepared for action; but the English spent the night previous to it in riot and jollity, whilst the Normans were occupied in the duties of religion. On the morning the Duke called together his principal officers, and ordered the signal of battle to be given. Then the whole army, moving at once, and singing the hymn or song of Roland, advanced in order and with alacrity towards the English.
Harold had seized the advantage of a rising ground, and, having secured his flanks with trenches, resolved to stand upon the defensive, and to avoid an engagement with the cavalry, in which he was inferior. The Kentish men were placed in the van, a post of honour which they always claimed as their due. The Londoners guarded the standard; and the King himself, accompanied by his two valiant brothers, Gurth and Leofwin, dismounting from his horse, placed himself at the head of his infantry, and expressed his resolution to conquer or to die. The first attack of the Normans was desperate, but was received with equal valour by the English, and the former began to retreat, when William hastened to their support with a select band. His presence restored the courage of his followers, and the English in their turn were obliged to retire. They rallied again, however, assisted by the advantage of the ground, and William, in order to gain the victory, had recourse to a stratagem, which, had it failed, would have resulted in his total ruin. He commanded his troops to allure the enemy from their position by the appearance of flight. The English followed with precipitation; the Normans faced upon them in the plain, and drove them back with considerable slaughter. The artifice was a second time repeated, with the same success; yet a great body of the English still maintained themselves in firm array, and seemed determined to dispute the victory. While they were galled by the Norman archers behind, they were attacked by the heavy-armed infantry in front; and Harold himself was slain by an arrow as he combated with great bravery at the head of his men. The English, discouraged by the fall of their prince, fled on all sides. The [pg 238]memory of the eventful fight is kept green by the name of Hastings, and Battle Abbey, in its immediate neighbourhood.
THE LAST OF THE GROSSER KURFÜRST.
Sadly must all readers look back upon the morning of Friday, May the 31st, 1878, when the Grosser Kurfürst went down off Sandgate, so near to land that the people on shore felt certain that the commander would be able to beach her before she had time to sink, unhappily an entirely erroneous supposition. Very shortly before this ever-to-be-lamented catastrophe occurred, the German squadron, in command of Admiral Von Batsch, was sailing with a light easterly wind blowing down Channel with all the pomp and pardonable display of a force so numerically small yet so grandly powerful. The sea was perfectly smooth, the weather fine, and there seemed no more reason for anticipating the impending danger than if they had been lying at anchor in the sunlit harbour of Bremen.
The squadron consisted of three vessels, sailing in two columns—the König Wilhelm, carrying the admiral’s flag, and the Preussen forming the port division, the Grosser Kurfürst forming the starboard, and less than two ships’ lengths apart from the admiral; indeed, it is said that scarcely one length intervened.
“In this formation the German squadron came across two sailing vessels hauled to the wind,” says the writer of the article from which we quote, “on the port tack, and consequently standing right across the bows of both divisions. The Grosser Kurfürst had first to give way, which she did at the proper time and strictly in accordance with the rule of the road, porting her helm and passing under the stern of the first of these two sailing ships. But the König Wilhelm, which it must be borne in mind was close to the Grosser Kurfürst at this time, and steering a course parallel to her, endeavoured at first to cross the bows of the sailing vessel, but finding she had no room for this manœuvre, rapidly changed her plan, and, putting her helm hard a-port, also stood under the stern of the sailing vessel. In the meanwhile the Grosser Kurfürst had resumed her original course, and thus was lying right across the bows of the König Wilhelm, as she came under the stern of the sailing barque almost at right angles to the original course.... The captain of the Grosser Kurfürst, Graf Von Montz, seeing the terrible proximity of the König Wilhelm, immediately put his vessel at full speed, hoping to cross her bows, but the space would not allow it. He then gave the order to port his helm, hoping to lay his ship parallel to the course of the König Wilhelm, but unfortunately for this also there was neither time nor space.” All might have gone well up to this point, however, as it appears the König Wilhelm was in charge of an “able and experienced officer;” he had given the order to port the helm to steer clear of the sailing vessel, and then ordered the helm to be “immediately steadied,” intending to range up alongside the Grosser Kurfürst; but the helmsman had become bewildered, and instead of steadying put the helm still more port. The König Wilhelm was put at full speed astern, and the fatal crash could not be avoided. All now was confusion on both vessels.