There are numerous cairns, barrows, kistvaens, and circles of stones in the islands, and Giant’s Castle, in S. Mary’s, is a good example of a cliff-camp of the Irish Firbolg type. A local guide attributes it to the Danes, but that is nonsense.
In Porth Hellick Bay Sir Cloudesley Shovel was washed ashore and buried.
In 1707 Sir Cloudesley in the Association, Captain Hancock in the Eagle, Sir George Byng in the Royal Anne, Captain Coney in the Romney, Lord Dudley in the St. George, Captain Piercy in the Firebrand, and a captured fireship, the Phœnix, were returning from Toulon after the capture of Gibraltar. On the morning of the 22nd October, the weather being thick and dirty, they came into soundings of nineteen fathoms. There is a tradition that a seaman on the admiral’s ship warned the officer of the watch that unless the ship’s course were altered they would soon be on the rocks of Scilly. This was reported to Sir Cloudesley, who was very angry. He had the man brought before him, and attempted to browbeat him, but the man stuck to his opinion. The admiral lost his temper, as he considered it a breach of decorum for a common mariner to dictate the course of the vessel to a superior officer, and he ordered the man to be hanged at the yard-arm. One request was granted to the sailor—that he should be allowed to read aloud a psalm to the assembled crew. This was permitted, and he read out Psalm cix.:—
“Hold not Thy tongue, O God of my praise: for the mouth of the ungodly, yea, the mouth of the deceitful, is opened upon us.”
That night the ship was lost. At six in the evening the admiral, who had brought the fleet to during the afternoon, made sail again, and stood away under canvas. Directly after he made signals of distress, which were returned by several of the fleet. Sir George Byng in the Royal Anne, who was a mile to windward of him, saw the breakers, and saved his vessel with difficulty.
The Association, Sir Cloudesley’s vessel, had struck at eight o’clock upon the Gilstones, a cluster of rocks of what are called the Western Isles, and in about two minutes went down with all on board save one. He clung to a piece of the wreck, and was swept on to the Hellweathers, where he remained for some time till rescued. The Eagle and the Romney were also lost with all hands. The Firebrand was lost as well, but the captain and some of the crew were rescued. The Phœnix ran ashore, but was got off again. The Royal Anne was saved. So was the S. George by the merest accident. She struck the same rock as the Association and about the same time, but the wave which sank the admiral’s ship floated the S. George from the rocks.
The body of Sir Cloudesley Shovel was picked up at Porth Hellick by a soldier and his wife, who gave it decent burial in the sand. It was afterwards conveyed at Lady Shovel’s desire to Westminster Abbey and laid there. She rewarded the soldier with a pension for life, and with the diamond ring from the finger of her husband.
Finally, with its amount of sunshine, with its equable temperature, and its air charged with ozone, I believe Scilly will be the sanatorium of the future.
Note.—Book to be consulted:—
Tonkin (J. C. and R. W.), Guide to the Isles of Scilly. Penzance, n.d. A capital little book.