n;
'I am fourscore years and ten;
Yet never in Bude Haven
Did I croak for rescued men.--
They will save the captain's girdle,
And shirt, if shirt there be;
But leave his blood to curdle
For my old dame and me.'"

The graveyards, the fields, the farmyards, will bear out this grim
character; there are traces of shipwreck everywhere--memorials of
drowned seamen in the burial-ground, figure-heads of shattered vessels
placed here and there, beams and spars applied to unintended
agricultural uses. One such figure-head is that of the _Bencoolen_, in
the churchyard, reminding us of a vessel wrecked in 1862, when only
six were saved from its crew of thirty-five. The _Bencoolen_ was
trading from Liverpool to Bombay. We may take Hawker's description of
the disaster, recollecting, however, that he wrote in great
excitement, and that he was a little unjust to the men of Bude. The
wreck took place towards the end of October, after a hurricane that
"lasted seven days and nights. On Tuesday at two o'clock afternoon a
hull was seen off Bude wallowing in the billows. All rushed to the
shore. At three she struck on the sand close to the breakwater--not
300 yards from the rocks. Manby's apparatus was brought down--a rocket
fired and a rope carried over to the ship. The mate sprang to clutch
it--missed--and fell into the sea, to be seen no more alive. 'Another
rope!' was the cry. But from the mismanagement of those in charge
there was no other there. They then saw the poor fellows constructing
a raft and launching it. A call for the lifeboat, one of large cost,
provided with all good gear, kept close by. She was run down to the
water. A shout for men--none--a few of the Hovillers, pilotmen, got on
board, but refused to put off--all Bude lining the cliffs and
shore--Well, well--to abbreviate a horror, the raft was tossed over.
About six were washed ashore with life in them, four corpses, and the
rest were carried off to sea dead--26 corpses are somewhere in our
water, and my men are watching for their coming on shore. The County
gives 5s. for finding each corpse, and I give 5s. more. Therefore they
are generally found and brought here to the vicarage, where the
inquest and the attendant events nearly kill me.... Hordes of people
picking up--salvors with carts and horses--and lookers on. It reminded
me of old Holingshed's definition, 'a place called Bedes Haven (Bede,
a grave).' When the masts went over the cap