of Chale incloses many a shipwrecked mariner--no doubt some
hundreds who were deposited, in the course of ages, without any memento
whatever: but the public are now more interested, from the circumstance
of the unfortunate sufferers in the wreck of the ship Clarendon being
here interred,--to whose memory tombstones are erected, on which the
date and other particulars of their melancholy fate are recorded.

* * * * *

WRECKS ON THE SOUTHERN COAST.

We have already stated how dangerous this part of the coast is
during a south or south-west wind, to vessels unmanageable in a
storm: and previously to the erection of the new Light-house, few
winters passed without two or more wrecks occurring between Niton
and Freshwater Bay. In former times, the _waifs_, or possession of
such remains of ships or their cargoes as were washed ashore, seems
to have been a valued right of this, as well as some other manors
in the Isle of Wight; and many tales have been told of the
inhumanity of the wreckers who in those days are said to have
resided in the neighbourhood,--which, if true, are strongly
contrasted by the ready zeal and liberality which the present
inhabitants display in assisting those unfortunates whom the
furious elements so often cast on this fatal shore.

Of the numerous vessels which have been lost here in our own time,
the largest was perhaps the _Carn-brea Castle_ East Indiaman, in
July 1829: she left Spithead at nine o'clock in the morning, and
about six hours afterwards struck on the rocks near Mottistone: the
weather being fine, her crew and passengers easily reached the
shore. The size of the ship, and the remarkable circumstances under
which she was lost, attracted a considerable number of visitors to
the spot,--as she was not immediately broken up, though all hopes
of removing her were soon abandoned.

A far more disastrous wreck was that of the CLARENDON, a West India
trader of 350 tons, which took place on the 11th of October, 1836:
and will be remembered with increased interest, as the acknowledged
fact of her loss being mainly attributable to the want of some
warning beacon on the land, led almost directly to the erection of
the splendid light-house at Niton. She had 11 passengers, male and
female, and 17 seamen on board: her cargo