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Lieutenant Cook, R.N., Addiscombe; and I shall be happy to receive and transmit to the Committee of Gentlemen acting on behalf of the widow, any subscription which may be forwarded to me at Portsmouth.

I have the honor to be,

BASIL HALL, Captain, R.N. P.S.-9th Jan. I copy the following paragraph from a Circular which has not been published:-Subscriptions will be thankfully received at the bank of Messrs. Drummond, Charing Cross; of Messrs. Williams, Deacon, and Labouchere, Birchin Lane; of Messrs. Martin, Stone, and Stone, 68, Lombard Street; also by Robert Miller, Esq. Blackheath Park; Thomas Lawrence, Esq., General Post Office; Captain Drew, Trinity House; John Walker, Esq., Hydrographer, India House; Major Robe, R.E., Tower: Thomas Chapman, Esq., Lloyd's; George Babb, Esq., Great Grimsby, Line Inshire; Captain Basil Hall, R.N., Portsmouth; and Lieutenant Cook, R.N. of Addiscombe College, or at 32, Sackville Street; from whom any further information may be obtained.

The Earl of Galloway, Colonel Connelly, Commander R.M., Woolwich, and Charles Brodrick, Esq., have very kindly consented to their names being given as trustees, for payment into the Bank of England, on account of Messrs. Hewett, of such sums as shall be reported to them by the above Bankers, on or before the 1st of May next, to be payable on her account. Remittances before the 1st of May, to the said Bankers, should be made "To the Trustees, in behalf of the Widow of the late Capt. Hewett, R.N.

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At Woolwich the following Memorial was circulated by Captain Hornby, the naval commander-in-chief.

Ir being ascertained beyond a doubt that Her Majesty's ship Fairy, was lost off the coast of Suffolk, on the morning of the 13th of November last, and that every person on board perished.

This Memorial is presented to a generous public, to draw their attention to the unfortunate circumstances in which this awful calamity has placed the poor widows and orphans of the seamen and marines composing her crew.

It appears from the Ship's Books, that out of a crew of forty-five then on board, eighteen have left wives and children, who being now deprived of their natural support, this appeal is made in their behalf.

Any contribution, however small, will be of importance, when there are so many who need relief, and will be received by Mr. Breaks, at the Senior Officer's Office, in the Dock-yard, who has kindly consented to take the office of Treasurer, on this occasion.

The following are the names of persons lost in the Fairy, in behalf of whose widows and orphans the above was circulated.

William Hewett, captain, widow and eight children*

All have been placed on the Compassionate Fund with an allowance of 161. per annum, and Mrs. Hewett has been awarded a pension of 1001.

Richard Stevens, acting-master, single.

Frederick Chapple, assistant-surgeon, single.

Henry Johnson, clerk, (purser on half-pay,) leaves a widow and nine children.*

C. B. Adam, midshipman.

William Hewett, vol. 1st class, son of Captain Hewett.

George T. Gregory, clerk's-assistant and assistant-surveyor, leaves a widow and one child.+

Alexander Kennedy, boatswain, leaves a widow and five children.
John Dodridge, act.-carpenter, leaves a widow and one child.

Thomas Hornby, sergeant of marines, leaves a widow and two children.
Richard Morris, corporal of marines, leaves a widow and one child.
James Davey, ship's cook, leaves a widow and eight children.
Thomas Potts, s.M.M. leaves a widow and two children.

Richard Middlemiss, leaves a widow and one child.

John Bowen, leaves a widow and two children.

Edward Morris, c.M., wife on board.

Leave widows,-William Reile, Stephen McWicker, Henry Clarke, Henry Johnson, William Lambert, and William Ekins.

Single, Thomas Westwood, Q.M., George Harwood, c.M.T., Thomas Fleming, C.F.T., William Johnson, A.B., Henry Davies, David Bowen, John Thomas, James Partington, private marines, Thomas Gottes, and Samuel Rich.

William Nixon, Edmund Whitehead, R. I. Arnold, Joseph Hartley, John Westwood, John Worthy, Matthew Muir, George Granger, Isaac Britt, George Bloomfield, Edward Munday, and John Davy, boy.

Names of the Tender's crew, in company with the Fairy the evening ́ ̧ before she was lost.

Frederick A. Cudlip, lieutenant.

Moses Hunt, gunner's-mate.

George Sladden, Henry J. Connelly, George Cochrane, Edward Webb, William Crone, Amos Cole, and James Greenwood.

[We must now exert our humble efforts, in an appeal to our own readers in behalf of the widows with their orphan children, enumerated in the foregoing list. It has been the lot of the Editor of this Journal to serve very lately on board the Fairy, and he can testify from personal knowledge, as to the many well-behaved, deserving, and excellent men, who have unhappily perished with their worthy leader, and have left their wives and children to the care of the nation at large. Those who know any thing of the Naval service, are fully

Five have been placed on the Compassionate Fund with an allowance of 101. per annum, leaving four unprovided for in any way; the widow has been granted a pension of 451.-it is a case of great distress.

This is a case of peculiar hardship. Mr. Gregory was following the business of an artist, and residing with his wife and only son at Plymouth, realizing about 2001: a year, which he left to join the Fairy. Having the rating of Clerk's-assistant only in that vessel, his widow is not only not entitled to a pension, but is excluded from the benefit of the Compassionate Fund, which is applicable to the children of commissioned and warrant gunroom officers. Thus she is left entirely unprovided for! Admiral Sir Charles Adam has most kindly given her a presentation to Greenwich for her son, and she would gladly take any situation adapted to her condition in life.

aware that, the allotment out of a seaman's pay is at best but a small pittance, in his absence to support a wife and family,—but when that is suspended, when the husband returns no more as usual to those who are looking anxiously for him; when his presence, which sweetened their portion in life, which gladdened their hearts, and which brought with it contentment with their lot,—when this sacred charm is suddenly cut off, then hard indeed, is the fate of those bereft of such a blessing. They mourn over their loss, they mourn, for what this world cannot restore; but in the midst even of their grief, they are awakened to a sense of their real condition, by the bitter pangs of want,-destitute and forlorn they find themselves cast as strangers among us. Happily for them their case has been already taken up, and a partial attention to their condition, has served to avert immediate want; but, we would ask, and we hope that we shall not in vain ask for the assistance of our own subscribers, in finishing the good work of charity.

As there were grounds for believing that the Fairy might possibly have run for refuge to a port of Norway, the Salamander, Commander Henry, was directed to proceed to Flekkeroe, Stavanger, and Bergen, as noticed in our last, but returned without any tidings of her.

Before concluding, we may yet add, that the following is the last intelligence of the unfortunate vessel.

The Fairy is stated to have been seen by a fisherman,* before one A.M., on the morning of the 13th of November, under her topsails, courses, jib, foretopmast staysail and driver, her courses hauled up, but not furled, off Thorpness, just outside the Sizewell Bank, a moderate breeze and moonlight night.

The Fairy is also reported to have been seen between Lowestoft and Southwold, on the morning of the 13th, standing to the eastward on the starboard tack, under close reefed topsails, and it is stated that a North Country brig saw her upset and go down, about four miles from land.

A fisherman named Benjamin Butcher, states, that at eleven A.M. on the morning of the 13th, being in his boat, about about five miles from Kessingland Church, this bearing about W.N.W., he passed close to a great number of papers, also a lug sail belonging to a gig, which appeared to have been but a short time in the water, but was unable to pick it up from the state of the sea.

A small box of papers, a triangular piece of board, the stand of an instrument, and the lid of a chart box, with the Fairy's name on it, the other things identified as her's also were picked up on the beach, on the coast of Suffolk, in the month of December.

A grating asserted to have belonged to the Fairy, and a spare oar were picked up on the 14th at 3 P.M., on the edge of the Brown Bank, by the Ebenezer fishing smack, south-east about thirty miles from Lowestoft.

At the time the Fairy might be supposed to have got underway, about midnight off Orford, the weather becoming threatening with a heavy sea from the south-east, it would have been the last quarter flood, anl she would probably be set to the northward with the first of the ebb. The weather being so bad as to preclude all possibility of doing arything

• William Major, of Southwold.

ENLARGED SERIES.-NO. 2.-VOL. FOR 1841.

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at Yarmouth, or even of obtaining shelter there, it seems likely that the Fairy would be keeping her wind for Harwich when the event occurred, and the articles picked up, as also the rest of the evidence concerning her, afford strong presumption that her wreck is not far from the coast about Southwold. The grating and oar picked up on 14th, might have been drifted out to the offing, as it appears the wind shifted to the south-west, and remained so all that day.

The following advertisement we perceive has been published by the Admiralty, and distributed along the coast.

£50 REWARD.-Whereas, her Majesty's surveying vessel Fairy, commanded by Captain William Hewett, sailed from Harwich on the 12th of November last, and is believed to have been lost in the severe gale of the following morning, at a short distance from the coast of Suffolk.

My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, do hereby offer a REWARD of FIFTY POUNDS to any person or persons, who shall, within six months from this date discover, and first give notice to the Secretary of the Admiralty, of the situation in which her wreck lies, to be paid as soon as their lordships are satisfied by proper examination as to its identity.

By Command of their Lordships,

Admiralty, January, 1841.

DESTRUCTION OF MERCHANTMEN.

JOHN BARROW.

SIR.-Revolting to humanity and every principle of justice, as every honest man must consider the act of conspiring, wilfully and fraudus lently, to destroy one's own ship, and incredible as may appear the execution of so vile a project, yet as plots of this deep die have sometimes been proved to exist, the welfare of society, as well as the interests of commerce require, that when offences of this flagitious character do occur, they ought to be thoroughly sifted and investigated; so that they may be brought fairly to light, and thus give a timely check to future mischiefs of the like nature, and kill the crocodile in the egg.

Without referring more particularly to the recent affairs of the Dryad and Isabel, which I hope may be properly dealt with; I will just observe that the intentional destruction of ships at sea, heinous as it is, is not a very new offence. I may mention, as a proof of this assertion, that some thirty years ago, an outward bound brig was scuttled off Brighton by the mate, by order of the captain; the mate, a youth of eighteen or twenty years of age, being told, on his promotion by the captain, that " if he acted to his (the captain's) satisfaction, that was sufficient." As the thing happened within few miles of land, at break of day in the summer season, and within view of a fashionable beach, assistance was soon rendered, and the vessel run ashore; in which situation, when the tide ebbed, the augur-holes in the run, by which the deed was effected, were discovered high and dry.

This business of boring the bottom, as it took place on our own coast, was of course adjudicated at home. The case, from its singularity and enormity, made a great noise at the time, and though it happened so

long ago, an authentic summary of it would, I think, have its uses at the present moment.

The particulars here stated, however, are merely from recollection, and they are adduced with no other view than to shew, that as misdeeds of this kind are not without parallel, so they ought to be met with due vigilance by the parties concerned in the security of our wooden walls, and especially by "Poor Jack," who henceforth, I hope, under suspicious circumstances may be "allowed to think."

The late Lord Ellenborough observed, that, "it is fortunate for mankind, that great crimes are generally attended with corresponding folly and imbecility of mind, which leads to their detection." This maxim, however true and applicable to delinquency on terra firma, admits, I fear, of too many exceptions in regard to intentional shipdestruction, committed on the high seas.

For my own part, I cannot avoid coming to the painful conclusion, that there are many more nefarious schemes of this kind contrived and hatched on shore than are actually perpetrated, and for this reason:because of the great apparent facility (coupled with the absence of all suspicion,) of accomplishing such an act without detection; the real difficulty consisting, I apprehend, in finding an instrument, occupying the station of captain, sufficiently depraved to undertake and go through with the job, and consequently, that there are more wilful and fraudulent, though undiscovered cases of wreck, &c., than there are of crimes of the like nature that are detected, exposed, denounced, and punished. AN OLD TAR.

ROCK OFF CAPE DE GATTE.

SIR.-On reading over, just now, the report of the danger that we saw off Cape de Gatte, in August last, I have observed one or two mistakes from mis-copying, which I shall feel obliged if you will cause to be corrected at your earliest convenience.

These corrections can be made, thus:

THE OUTER ROCK OFF CAPE DE GATTE.

In the October number of 1840, of the Nautical Magazine, at page 734, line 45, for " but I think it is most likely to be the only danger alluded to in the Book of Directions of 1750," read "but I think it is most likely to be the OUTER danger alluded to in the Book of Directions of 1750." And again, at p. 735, line 12, for N.W.b.N.," read "N.E.b.N. by compass, that the white mark on the land to the eastward of the Cape, bore from this outer danger."

I feel positive that it was a sunken rock, as before described. It appeared quite green, and possibly might have had three or four fathoms water over it. I do not think it was longer than a line-of-battle ship's launch. The signal-man, on the fore royal yard, first reported it as being close on our PORT bow. The look-out man at the jib-boom end next saw it. I instantly put the helm a-port, and ran to the port side of the poop, with the master, and all the officers that were there, when we all saw it distinctly, on our beam, about two to three boats' lengths only from us. Had we not been under all sail, and going between eight and nine knots, I certainly should have hove to, and examined it. I am &c., J. T. NICOLAS,

H.M.S. Belleisle, Jan. 18, Devonport.

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