Footnotes

1.

“Select observations of the incomparable Sir Walter Raleigh relating to trade,” as presented to King James.

2.

“History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce.”

3.

Monson’s “Naval Tracts” in Churchill’s “Collection.” Most of the narrative to follow is taken from the same source.

4.

Charnock, “History of Naval Architecture.”

5.

This contemptuous allusion refers of course to the tobacco brought from the newly-formed plantations in Virginia.

6.

Macaulay: “History of England.”

7.

The term “America” often included the West Indies, &c., at that period.

8.

The principal authorities are—“The History of Peter the Great, &c.,” by Alexander Gordon, who was several years a major-general in the Russian service, and was son-in-law of the General Patrick Gordon who may be said to have once saved Russia to the Czar; “Histoire de Pierre le Grand,” by Voltaire; and the “Life of Peter the Great,” by John Barrow, F.R.S., &c. A modern French writer has given a catalogue of ninety-five authors of some little note who have treated of Peter’s life.

9.

This name is spelled by the various authorities in many ways; sometimes it is Zaardam.

10.

One account says, indeed, that he worked with his own hands as hard as any man in the yard. “If so,” says Barrow, “it could only have been for a very short time, and probably for no other purpose than to show the builders that he knew how to handle the adze as well as themselves.”

11.

The site of Evelyn’s mansion was long covered with a workhouse; the shady walks and splendidly kept hedges are now replaced by a victualling yard, where oxen and hogs are slaughtered for the use of the navy, and the transformation of all his haunts in the neighbourhood has been unpleasantly complete.

12.

Scheltema, a Dutch authority cited by Barrow.

13.

One of the very best accounts of the South Sea Bubble is to be found in Charles Mackay’s “Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions,” frequently quoted above.

14.

The Rev. Richard Walter, M.A., Chaplain of the Centurion, who compiled the work so well known under the title of Anson’s “Voyage Round the World,” from the papers and material of the latter.

15.

“The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron, containing an Account of the Great Distresses suffered by himself and his Companions on the Coast of Patagonia, from the year 1740 till their Arrival in England, 1746,” &c.

16.

“Two or three days after our arrival” (at Santiago), says Byron, “the President sent Mr. Campbell and me an invitation to dine with him, where we were to meet Admiral Pizarro and all his officers. This was a cruel stroke upon us, as we had not any cloaths to appear in, and dared not refuse the invitation. The next day, a Spanish officer belonging to Admiral Pizarro’s squadron, whose name was Don Manuel de Guiror, came and made us an offer of two thousand dollars. This generous Spaniard made this offer without any view of ever being repaid, but purely out of a compassionate motive of relieving us in our present distress.” A part of the money was thankfully accepted, and they got themselves decently clothed.

17.

James Grahame, “The History of the United States of North America.”

18.

George Bancroft, “History of the United States.”

19.

The above account is principally derived from Bancroft.

20.

Robert Stuart, “Historical and Descriptive Anecdotes of Steam-Engines.”

21.

John MacGregor, in a paper read before the Society of Arts, 14th of April, 1858.

22.

William Bourne, “Inventions or Devises” (1578).

23.

“A Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation,” by Bennet Woodcroft.

24.

This brochure is extremely scarce. The curious in such matters will find it reprinted in full in Woodcroft’s “Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation.”

25.

“History of Merchant Shipping,” &c.

26.

Philadelphia Dispatch. February 9th, 1873.

27.

Vide “Bowie on Steam Navigation;” and the works of Lindsay and Woodcroft, already quoted.

28.

“The Life of R. Fulton” is an American work, and so little known in England, that the present writer has intentionally made the above copious extracts from it.

29.

The engine of this vessel is to be seen in the Patent Office Museum.

30.

Smiles’ “Lives of the Engineers.”

31.

In an able pamphlet, “The Fleet of the Future,” by Mr. Scott Russell, published by Longmans & Co. in 1861, the author remarks (p. 20):—“A good many years ago, I happened to converse with the chief naval architect of one of our dockyards on the subject of building ships of iron. The answer was characteristic, and the feeling it expressed so strong and natural that I have never forgotten it. ‘Don’t talk to me about iron ships, it’s contrary to nature.’ There was at one time almost as great a prejudice against Indian teak as a material for shipbuilding, as this wood is heavier than water, and, in the form of a log, will not float.”

32.

The above account is derived from Lindsay.

33.

See Annual Register, 1854, p. 162.

34.

The Times, November 17th, 1875.

35.

“Our Seamen: an Appeal.”

36.

An excess of that very aliment, the absence of which produces scurvy, will also induce disease. Thus, the negroes of the West Indies live too exclusively on vegetables, and disease follows, the remedy for which is usually red herrings—herrings salted and smoked till they are as red as copper.

37.

The Times, January 14th, 1867.

38.

“English Seamen and Divers.”

39.

Frederick Martin: “The History of Lloyd’s and of Marine Insurance in Great Britain.”

40.

The term is applied exclusively to maritime insurers, although, strictly speaking, anyone signing a bond is an underwriter.

41.

See Lindsay’s “History of Merchant Shipping,” Timbs’ “Year Book of Facts in Science and Art,” and Irving’s “Annals of Our Times.” She is still nearly five times the size of any merchant vessel afloat; as we have seen, the Inman steamer, City of Berlin (5,500 tons), comes next to her. There are ironclads nearly half her tonnage.

42.

One account says a “ferry-boat,” meaning probably one of the large steam ferry-boats common in America.

43.

“Sunning” means, in some parts of Canada, the act of promenading.

44.

The larger part of the above information is derived from “Our Ironclad Ships,” by E. J. Reed, late Chief Constructor of the Navy.

45.

The Times, April 26th, 1876.

46.

Vide “Our Ironclad Ships.”

47.

C. D. Colden: “Life of Robert Fulton.”

48.

“Torpedo War, and Submarine Explosions” (New York, 1810). A scarce and valuable brochure.

49.

Such a vessel as the Albemarle would be scorned in England and America now-a-days, if regarded as an ironclad. But she was, of course, infinitely stronger than the wooden ships with which she had to fight.

50.

The explosive power of dynamite, or “giant powder,” as it is known in America, is something wonderful. The writer while in California witnessed some experiments with it, which are indelibly written on his brain. A mortar was set upright in the field appropriated for the exhibition, and several pounds of ordinary powder having been rammed down, a large cannon-ball was put in and the charge fired. The ball was raised a foot or so, and then tumbled to the ground. A few ounces of dynamite and the same ball were placed in the mortar, and the charge exploded by concussion. The cannon-ball was projected upwards in the air several hundred feet. It will be imagined that the writer and his friends scattered in all directions, and watched very carefully the downward flight of the ball.

51.

“The Gun, Ram, and Torpedo.” (Prize Essay written for the Junior Naval Professional Association, 1874.) By Commander Gerard H. U. Noel, R.N.

52.

“The Life of Smeaton,” as incorporated in his “Lives of the Engineers.”

53.

It appears that a post-mortem examination of one of the light-keepers who died from injuries received during the fire took place some thirteen days after its occurrence, and a flat oval piece of lead some seven ounces in weight was taken out of his stomach, having proved the cause of his death.

54.

“Essays on Engineering.”

55.

The Hoe is an elevated promenade, forming the sea-front of Plymouth, and overlooking the Sound.

56.

The following is the tradition from an ancient source:—“By the east of the Isle of May, twelve miles from all land in the German Sea, lyes a great hidden rock, called Inchcape, very dangerous to the navigators, because it is overflowed every tide. It is reported that, in old times, there was upon the said rock a bell, fixed upon a tree or timber, which rang continually, being moved by the sea, giving notice to the saylors of the danger. This bell or clocke was put there by the Abbot of Arberbrothok, and being taken down by a sea-pirate, a year thereafter he perished upon the same rock, with ship and goodes, by the righteous judgment of God.” (Stoddart’s “Remarks on Scotland.”)

57.

“Account of the Skerryvore Lighthouse, with Notes on the Illumination of Lighthouses,” by Alan Stevenson.

58.

“A Rudimentary Treatise on the History, Construction, and Illumination of Lighthouses.” (Weale’s Series.)

59.

Vide “The Rambles of a Naturalist on the Coasts of France, Spain, and Sicily.”

60.

M. Quatrefages de Bréau, the distinguished French naturalist and philosopher, says that the revolving apparatus was partially due to M. Lemoine, a citizen, and at one time Mayor, of Calais.

61.

It was exposed twice to terrific storms during its construction. In 1808 the battery was submerged, the parapet upset, and the barracks and garrison, with sixty men, swept away. But the large blocks of stone were afterwards found to be more securely stowed than they had been before.

62.

“An amount of material,” says a well-known authority, “at least equal to that contained in the Great Pyramid.”

63.

“Lives of the Engineers.”

64.

The Times, September 14th, 1861.

65.

Horace Moule in Weldon’s “Register of Facts and Occurrences relating to Literature, the Sciences, and the Arts,” December, 1862.

66.

As described in the latter chapter on the lighthouse.

67.

This was the same gale which destroyed Winstanley’s Eddystone Lighthouse, the first erected on the rock, as already described. It is to be noted that Winstanley’s house, at Littlebury, in Essex, 200 miles from the lighthouse, fell down and was utterly destroyed in the same storm.

68.

This narrative differs from the more circumstantial account given by Defoe, doubtless from official authorities. The vessel had seventy guns, and 349 men; the latter, likely enough, may not have been her full complement.

69.

A large part of the information incorporated above is derived from one of the least known of Defoe’s works, entitled, “The Storm: or, a Collection of the most Remarkable Casualities and Disasters which happened in the Late Dreadful Tempest, both by Sea and Land.”

70.

Although so severe in England and a large part of the Continent, Scotland scarce felt the fury of the gale. Defoe, in his poem on the subject, says:—

“They tell us Scotland ’scaped the blast;

No nation else have been without a taste:

All Europe sure have felt the mighty shock,

’T has been a universal stroke.

But heaven has other ways to plague the Scots,

As poverty and plots.”

71.

“History of the Life-boat and its Work,” by Richard Lewis, of the Inner Temple, Esq., Secretary of the National Life-boat Institution.

72.

Including the grand name of William Wilberforce.

73.

Its revenue is now approximately ten times the above amount.

74.

For the perilous nature of the employment, the pay is ridiculously small. It must be, however, in fairness to the Institution, remembered that it is a society depending on the benevolent public for its support, and is not a Government concern. Each boat has its appointed coxswain at a salary of £8 per annum, and assistants at £2 per annum. On every occasion of going afloat to save life, the coxswain and his men receive alike, 10s. if by day, and £1 if by night.

75.

“Storm Warriors; or, Life-boat Work on the Goodwin Sands,” by the Rev. John Gilmore, M.A.

76.

The Times, November 5th, 1866.

77.

The Times, January 6th, 1876.

78.

The Shipwrecked Mariner. A Quarterly Maritime Journal. Vol. XXII. 1875. (Organ of the “Shipwrecked Mariner’s Society.”) The article is from the pen of Lindon Saunders, Esq.

79.

The Life-boat: a Journal of the Life-boat Institution. November 2nd, 1874.

80.

The following account is based mainly on the reports published in the Times.

81.

A part of the crew behaved in a most cowardly manner, and thought only of saving themselves, although Captain Knowles and Mr. Brand, the chief officer, who stood nobly by their posts, did all in their power to shame these recreants, and themselves went down with the ship. The lines quoted above were written by a graduate of Pembroke College, Cambridge, whose promising career was cut short by death at an early age. The poem, described as “A Fragment,” is given in full in The Lifeboat for February 1st, 1878.

82.

Vide The Life-boat; or, Journal of the National Life-boat Institution. August 2, 1875.

83.

The Scilly Islands, thirty miles from the Land’s End, are 140 in number, and range in extent from one to 1,600 acres, several of the larger being fully inhabited. They are flanked by the grandest rock scenery, and surrounded by reefs and rocks innumerable.

84.

Captain Thomas had, we were told on other authority, navigated the Schiller across the Atlantic and past the treacherous Scillies eight times. He imagined himself to be far from a point of danger; and old sea-captains assert that it is not uncommon for a vessel to be in advance of her commander’s calculations—in other words, she may plough through the water faster than he is aware. In this case the sun had been absent for three days, and the course had been kept by dead reckoning.

85.

The Lifeboat, &c., February 1st, 1876.

86.

Shortly after the wreck of the Deutschland, the same tug-boat, the Liverpool, rescued from certain death the crew of another foreign ship, this time a Norwegian vessel, wrecked on the Ship-wash sandbank; and the Ramsgate life-boat, summoned by telegram from Harwich, was towed by the steam-tug Aid no less than forty-five miles to the scene of the disaster—only to find on arrival there that the shipwrecked crew had already been saved by the Harwich tug—and then another forty-five miles on her return. The fifteen poor fellows on board had then been fourteen hours sitting in their boat, with the seas and spray breaking over them through the whole of this terrible voyage in a freezing atmosphere. They landed in a benumbed and half-frozen state, from the effects of which some of them were sure to suffer severely afterwards.

87.

The Lifeboat, &c., Feb. 1st, 1876.

88.

“The Loss of the Amazon.” By the Rev. C. A. Johns, B.A., F.L.S., &c.

89.

In sea-going steam-vessels the salt water employed in the boilers incrusts the sides with a deposit of salt, and it is necessary to “blow off” every now and again, and discharge the water from them.

90.

Eliot Warburton, the author of “The Crescent and the Cross,” &c., &c.

91.

“The Amazon:” A sermon preached at St. Andrew’s Church, Plymouth, January 18th, 1852, by the Rev. William Blood (one of the survivors).

92.

This is common enough in all the great steamship lines, where certain vessels acquire a name for speed and accommodation, and where the captain is known as a first-class commander. Passengers who can afford to wait often delay their trips for weeks for the opportunity of sailing on a favourite ship.

93.

The Rev. D. J. Draper, a man of fifty-six years of age, was returning to Australia, where for thirty years he had laboured as a missionary, and where he was very generally and deservedly respected. Part of the information respecting the wreck is taken from “The Storm and the Haven,” a tribute to his memory, published in Melbourne the year of the terrible occurrence.

94.

The official inquiry of the Board of Trade elicited the fact that the number was somewhat smaller. The total number of souls on board was 263, and of these 19 were saved, leaving the number who perished at 244.

95.

It is a fact that Captain Martin had an interest in the London to the extent of £5,000. Hard to lose life and property so valuable—may be, so important to others at home—at one and the same time!

96.

The above account is principally derived from a “Narrative of the Loss of the Rothsay Castle,” by Lieut. R. J. Morrison, R.N., and other sources.

97.

The writer has seen nearly the same thing practised on the flat-bottomed stern-wheel steamers common in some parts of America, where, in shallow water, the passengers have been required to walk to the other side of the vessel, and literally “tip” her on that side. On one occasion in a “slough,” or shallow passage, he saw a number of the passengers and crew literally step out into the water and push the boat along, till, with their exertions and the steam-power, she was got off the bank.

98.

Vide “Letters, &c., on the Loss of the Rothsay Castle.” By the Rev. J. H. Stewart.

99.

“Narrative of the Wreck of the Steamer Killarney,” &c. By Baron Spolasco, M.D., &c., &c.

100.

Our information is derived from an article on the subject in The Life-boat for November 1st, 1878.