elant, to which the Penzance lifeboat
with a stout-hearted crew had started, when our despatch left, to rescue
thirteen men who could be descried hanging in the shrouds. A fine new
ship is on Hayle bar, and another vessel is believed to be wrecked there
also. Doubtless we have not yet heard of all the wrecks on the Cornish
coast; but it is in the magnificent bay which includes Torquay,
Paignton, and Brixham that the most terrible havoc has occurred. On
Wednesday, about sixty sail were anchored in Torbay. Eleven have gone
ashore at Broadsands, five of which are total wrecks. The names of
those we could ascertain were the Fortitude, of Exeter; the Stately, of
Newcastle; the Dorset, of Falmouth, and a French brigantine. At five
o'clock on Thursday evening some of the crews were being drawn ashore by
lines and baskets. At Churston Cove one schooner is ashore and a total
wreck; there is also another, the Blue Jacket, which may yet be saved.
At Brixham there are two fine ships ashore inside the breakwater. At
the back of the pier ten vessels have been pounded to matchwood, and all
that remains are a shattered barque, her masts still standing, two
brigs, and a schooner, all inextricably mingled together. Twelve
trawlers have been sunk and destroyed. Out of the sixty ships at anchor
on Wednesday night there were not more than ten left on Thursday
afternoon. Many of these are disabled, some dismasted. A fishing-boat
belonging to Brixham was upset in the outer harbour about eight o'clock,
and two married fishermen of the town and a boy were drowned. At Elbury
a new brig, the Zouave, of Plymouth, has gone to pieces, and six out of
her crew of ten are drowned. Eleven other vessels are on shore at
Elbury, many of the men belonging to which cannot be accounted for. One
noble woman, named Wheaton, wife of a master mariner, saved two lives by
throwing a rope from the window of her house, which is built on the
rocks overhanging the bay at Furzeham Hill. Scores of poor shipwrecked
men are wandering distractedly about Brixham and Churston, the greater
part of them having lost all they possessed. The total loss of life
arising from these disasters is variously estimated at from seventy to a
hundred.

Is not this a tremendous account of the doings of one gale? And let it
be observed that we have lifted only one corner of the curtain and
revealed the battlefield of only one small portion of our far-reaching
coasts. What is