Dec 30 1825 Shipwreck / Brig "William" - Cumberland and Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

Dec 30 1825 Shipwreck / Brig "William"

The Times, Friday, Dec 30, 1825; pg. 2; Issue 12851; col F

SHIPWRECK.
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The brig William, of Workington, Wm. ELLIOT, master, sailed from Balbriggen, in
Belfast, on Sunday the 18th current, homeward bound. When off the point of Ayr,
the wind blowing a severe gale from W.S.W. and carrying a press of canvass to
gain the Cumberland coast, the ballast shifted, and the vessel lay down on her
beam ends. The master and crew in this perilous situation at once cut away the
mainmast, which had the effect of righting the vessel; but the wind veering to
eastward, and increasing to a perfect hurricane, they were obliged to take in
all canvass, and the brig becoming ungovernable, she drifted along the coast,
and ran ashore a little to southward of Cruggleton Castle, in the Bay of
Wigtown, at seven o'clock on Tuesday morning the 20th. The place where the
vessel struck is a rugged wild coast; the precipice may be about ninety feet
high; and a cave is curiously formed by nature, into which the bow of the vessel
took its direct course. The stern, with about half of the ship, from the shock
and awful force of the waves dashing against the precipice, was literally
severed from the bow, and lamentable to relate, the captain, an industrious
deserving man, was carried along with this part of the vessel, and sunk to rise
no more. He has left a wife and four children to lament his loss. The crew
consisted of four men, besides the master, three of whom, by clinging to the
cliffs of the rocks, and ascending a kind of rugged pathway (if it deserve the
name), soon escaped from their deplorable situation. The fourth man was supposed
by his shipmates to have met the lamentable fate of their captain. This poor
fellow was, however, observed by John NICOL, servant to Mr. BROADFOOT, at
Palmallet, falling from a projecting rock, about 12 feet high, into the water;
fortunately more assistance came to the spot at the moment, and the drowning man
was washed back to the shelving rock he had been so recently hurled from.
Through the humane exertions of Mr. BROADFOOT, his servants, and those of Mr.
HANNAY, in Cruggleton, he was resued from his perilous situation, and carried to
the farm-house of Palmallet. Medical aid was promptly procured, and the poor
fellow is now almost recovered. In this man's case, there was truly a miraculous
escape, as he was so long in being discovered. We saw the awful scene a few
hours afterwards from the top of the precipice, and it struck us most forcibly
that a particular superintending Providence must have saved the lives of the
survivors, as the place presented nothing but death in its most shocking form.
The vessel had on board one hundred pounds in silver, forty-five of which has
been picked up and secured. The Earl of GALLOWAY, as soon as he heard of the
wreck, gave orders for his work-people and horses to lend every assistance in
saving the wreck; but all that has been picked up will amount to little, except
the cash, as every piece of wood is so shockingly mangled. Captain M'KERLIE,
R.N., and Joseph HAYTON, master of the brig Donegal, of Workington, (an old
shipmate of ELLIOTT's) presently discharging timber at Garliston harbour, were
most actentive in giving all the aid in their power; and to the credit of the
population at large, they acted a most becoming and feeling part. Mr.
BROADFOOT's hospitality and kind attention to the poor sufferers deserve
particularly to be noticed.

It is much to be feared other vessels have been wrecked during the last storm,
as four Irish bullocks were picked up on the Egerness shore on Wednesday; they
were beginning to smell, however, and it is supposed must have come via
Liverpool. - Dublin Correspondent.

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