, they assembled all the workmen they could muster,
and manning a cutter with the crew of the launch, they went off to the
Sheerness, which had been driven on shore to the west of York Island.

There a most distressing sight presented itself; two vessels had been
driven on shore, one of which was totally lost. The Sheerness had
parted her cables during the night, and for a time her situation was
exceedingly perilous, it was impossible to stand upon deck till the
main and mizen masts had been cut away. The water rose above the
orlop deck till it became level with the surface of the sea.

Not a barrack-house or tree escaped the ravages of the storm; many
were levelled with the ground, others extensively damaged, and the
hospital was completely unroofed, which rendered the situation of the
sick most deplorable. One of the patients was killed by the falling
beams. Several Europeans fell a sacrifice to the storm, many of them
being exposed to the torrents of rain without any place of shelter
within reach.

Lord George Stuart, the officers and crew of the Sheerness were
acquitted of all blame respecting the loss of that vessel, it being
the opinion of the court, that 'Every exertion was made for the
preservation of the ship by the captain, officers, and crew upon that
trying occasion; and that, owing to the violence of the hurricane, the
loss of the ship was inevitable; and every subsequent attempt to get
her afloat proved ineffectual, in consequence of the damage she had
sustained in grounding when driven on shore, from the impossibility of
keeping her free by means of the pumps.'

Lord George Stuart entered the navy in the year 1793 as a midshipman
on board the Providence, in which ship he had the misfortune to be
wrecked in the year 1797.

He received his post rank in 1804, and was almost constantly employed
from that time until 1809, when he assumed the command of a light
squadron at the mouth of the Elbe.

Here he performed an important service in taking the town of
Gessendorf, situated on the banks of the Weser, and in driving from
the fortress a body of French troops who had made frequent predatory
and piratical excursions in the neighbourhood of Cuxhaven.

A few days after the defeat of the French, the gallant Duke of
Brunswick also arrived on the opposite banks of the Weser, after
having almost succeeded in effecting his retreat through the heart of
Germany. By the previous dispersion of the enemy and the des