n the two Sorelle; I saw
between the two heads of rocks, which are aptly named 'Sisters,' her
entire engine, two anchors, a shell gun, and some loose parts of the
wreck. I recovered and took on board some pieces of iron from the bed
of the engine, and a boarding cutlass. The engine lies in a medium
depth of ten metres (thirty-three feet).

'From information which has been given me by boats which saw the
Avenger at sea the day of her loss, and adding the observations which
I was enabled to make on the spot itself, I have every reason to
believe that the event happened in the following manner:--

'The Avenger had, during the day, run along the coast of Algeria, but
on the approach of night, being then north of Calle, and the weather
having suddenly become very bad, with a great deal of wind from the
north-west, the captain of the Avenger altered her course immediately
to the northward, in order not to be caught in the middle of a
dangerous channel. As soon as he thought that the ship had passed the
parallel of the Sorelle, he resumed his course to the eastward,
satisfied that he would pass several miles to the northward of them.
He had not calculated on the currents which I have found at this
dangerous spot, and which, with a north-west wind, set to the
south-eastward with a rapidity of about 3 miles an hour. The track of
the Avenger must have been materially altered by this cause. When she
steered east, she was only in the latitude of the Sorelle, and was
shortly afterwards, on a very dark night, shattered against these
rocks. The first shock must have been dreadful. It took place on the
point south-east of the north-west rock; when she cleared this rock,
which is at this spot thirteen feet below the surface, leaving a large
white furrow, she ran a hundred and sixty feet further, and struck on
the south-east rock, which is only about four feet (one metre twenty
centimetres) below the surface. She again marked the rock very
distinctly. The sea, which is often very rough on this spot, has left
nothing remaining but the massive part of the engine, where it can be
perceived between the two rocks, covered with thick weed.

'The dangerous Sorelle are formed by two tables of rocks, distant
about a hundred and sixty feet from each other, and separated by a
channel of a medium depth of thirty-nine to forty-nine feet (twelve to
fifteen metres). These two tables of rocks extend from the north-west
to the south-east. The north-we