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taken the subject in hand for us. But a deference to these, with the reasons we have pointed out, render such a conclusion unavoidable. Before we quit this part of the subject, we must not omit to observe, that the Charlotte's position of the rock appears, we are informed by the owner, in her captain's protest; and so it may be concluded we presume, did the place which the Madeline assigned to it, and all the vessels severally gone before her, each laying it down as it seemed right to each. Certain it is that it cannot be in all of them. But we have a word to add about protests;—the Lorton Rock, in the Providence N.E. channel, has shewn how much faith is to be placed in them. In our volume for 1839, at p. 810, in alluding to Capt. Vidal's search for the Bonetta Rock, we said, "We recollect a case of this kind (saying sunken rocks exist where they do not) which occurred in the West Indies, and which we ourselves have recorded of a vessel, stated to have been lost on a rock in the very middle of the Providence N.E. Channel, and this was the Lorton Rock. The account of it may be found in our volume for 1833, (p. 561); there it stands with our very careful precautionary remarks warning navigators against it. We might have entertained certain suspicious about it in our innocence on such matters, but we did our duty, and in the very next volume, a few months after, we had to record Capt. Owen's refutation of its existence. (See p. 131, vol. 1834.) Happily for our Nassau ships, the Lorton's ballast, and certain iron pipes on board of her as cargo, were found on Egg Island Reef, and the bugbear of a doubtful danger, lodged six feet under water, and no bigger than a boat's bottom,' was consigned to oblivion, instead of worrying them (if they were not in the secret,) by its appearauce in the very fairway of the channel from Nassau." We said more than this at the same time, concerning the Bonetta; all of which as yet we have found no reason to alter. But we adduce this passage as an instance of the faith to be placed in protests as to the position of sunken dangers. But where after all is the Bonetta Rock? Good service has been rendered in helping us to find it, and perhaps with such assistance we may be able to do so withont sending another ship after it! We have said it is not in the position which the Charlotte's log assigns to it, recomputed as it has been by so many of our contributors.

It is quite clear that the only instance of a current being taken into the Charlotte's account is that to which we have already alluded as no current. The days' works are computed with the mere distance given by the log, down to the time when the vessel struck, and thence the position of the rock is inferred. And yet it is notorious to any experienced seaman, that there is a dangerous current in that part of the ocean passed through by the Charlotte. The charts too, that we have seen, caution the seaman, by well-known indications in the shape of arrows, to be on his guard, shewing the general direction in which it sets. But as the first authority on currents, let us refer to the late Major Rennell's valuable work, "On the Currents of the Ocean," and see what he says. Although not a seaman, he bequeathed to seamen a most important work compiled from a large mass of good practical experience, with an assiduity and perseverance which is very rarely to be met with. Our ground is between Madeira and the Cape

Verde Islands, and at p. 37, of the Major's work, we find the following paragraph:-" In the usual line from Madeira, south-westward to the sight of San Antonio, the north-westernmost of the Cape Verde Islands, the current almost always sets to the south-eastward as far as the latitude of 25° north, when it will be found to be south-westward, or more westerly, obeying the general trade-winds. Indeed, the south-west current commences in twenty-eight degrees of latitude." So says Major Rennell.

But suppose we take another authority. There is an excellent compilation well-known to seamen, entitled "A Memoir, descriptive and explanatory to accompany the New Chart of the Atlantic Ocean," by Mr. John Purdy, containing a large mass of information, equally useful, interesting, and instructive. We quote from the sixth edition of 1829, not having seen a more recent one. In p. 109 we read that "In proceeding to Tenerife, Sir Erasmus Gower observed a constant current setting to the southward, at the rate of a mile an hour, equal to twenty-two miles in the distance between Madeira and that island." In p. 114, Baron Roussin say, "The general currents on the African coast between Cape Bojador and the Isles de Los, with the exception of some places subject to a more or less regular tide, are uniform during the eight months which comprise the fine season. They follow exactly the trend of the coast from north to south." We might multiply such proofs as these were it necessary to show what every seamen knows, that a southerly current sets throughout that part of the ocean between Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands, varying as we have seen, first to the south-east, then to the south-west. Accordingly then we should expect to find the Charlotte when to the northward of lat. 28° to be to the eastward of her reckoning, and when south of that parallel to be to the westward of it, but indisputably to the southward of it.

Now we need be at no loss for any proof of this general southerly current in the case before us, for there is ample evidence of it even in the log of the Charlotte. The whole difference of latitude given by the log, from the departure to the time she struck amounts only to 16° 9', while it is admitted by observation to be 17° 12', shewing a set of seventy-three miles to the southward since the departure from Madeira unaccounted for. Here then we say is ample proof of a southerly set. With all this evidence then before us of a current under which, and indeed along with which the Charlotte was sailing, how is it possible, we would ask, to agree in the truth of her position of the Bonetta Rock, when such current has not been allowed for in her reckoning. According to that reckoning, as reported in the Consul's letter, she struck n the rock in latitude 16° 17, longitude 22° 21' west; and the same remark is applicable to those vessels that have found it before her. But it may be said we have not taken the real difference of latitude given by the log, as it will vary according to the course, as well as the distance made good. Well then, let us refer to the work of our contributors. The greatest difference of latitude which is made by ƒ amounts to 16° 41', and the least by e amounts to 16° 7', and the mean of all amounts to 16° 23'. Even with this mean then there is fifty-nine miles shewn ENLARGED SERIES. NO. 12.-vol. FOR 1841.

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as the effect of a southerly current, not being accounted for by the Charlotte's log.

But the Charlotte had two chronometers embarked, which, we are told by Capt. Hains, of the Hon. East India Company's service, performed exceedingly well; and our best acknowledgments are due to that officer for the pains which he has taken to show the behaviour of these chronometers, which indeed appear to have gone remarkably well. Such attention to the subject is quite in accordance with that high character in these matters which has always distinguished the officers of the service to which he belongs.

We shall not trouble our readers with any comments on the discordances presented in the table, although we might remark on some wide differences which appear here and there. But we will turn to the last day this presents a tolerable agreement in latitude as well as the day before, but along with it very wide differences in longitude. Therefore, as we have said, we shall leave them, and turn at once to what is recorded in the Charlotte's log of her chronometers, which if they have not done good service for the Charlotte, they have for us, in helping us to find the Bonetta rock. And what do they say! Why, that while the vessel is making a south course by her reckoning from the noon of Saturday to that of Sunday, the day she was lost, the mean of these chronometers shows a westerly set of 21 minutes of longitude. One of them shews a set of 27', and the other 15' to the westward. Even the day before when by the account the Charlotte had made 14' casting, the chronometers shew the same amount of westing! If our readers will refer to pages 680 and the following, this will be apparent to them.

Surely this was sufficient to open the eyes of any one entrusted with the charge of a ship! to the fact of her being influenced by a formidable current, the action of which can only be discovered by these valuable machines; for what purpose were they on board the Charlotte, but to detect the influence of currents, and to correct her reckoning.

Now the first step that would be taken in the prudent management of a vessel on approaching the position of a reputed danger, or at any rate a part of the ocean which has been fatal to so many vessels, would at least have been a careful look-out to avoid the same disastrous consequences, and such a direction of the vessel's course adopted as would have avoided it. A careful commander would have reasoned thus, when he made the discovery on Sunday at noon :-The chronometers have shewn a considerable set to the westward both to-day and yesterday, and I am not clear of the Cape Verdes. Will my present course keep me so? A S.S.W. course from where I am in 17° 2' and 22°, the westernmost of my chronometers, will keep me clear of Bonavista, and I shall not keep further away till I am to the southward of this island; I can then alter course and make Mayo and St. Jago.Such would have been the determination of a discreet commander of the Charlotte.

But what did the Charlotte do? Only two hours after, when she was yet forty miles to the northward of Bonavista, the very elbow of the Cape Verdes, she keeps away two points more, and in consequence is brought up by the reefs off that elbow! Even if she had cleared

Bonavista we should have heard of her running against Mayo or St. Jago with such a course.

We have already shewn by the high authority of Major Rennell, by Baron Roussin, and by Sir Erasmus Gower, and also by the Charlotte's log and her chronometers, that she was within the influence of a strong southwesterly current, but we have deferred another evidence of it until we came to the consideration of that part of her voyage immediately preceding her loss when she was close to the Cape Verde Islands. The evidence to which we allude, although it might never have been seen on board the Charlotte applies most especially to her case. We mean a certain little chart which was published in this journal in 1839, containing the tracks of the Ætna in search of the Bonetta rock. Besides containing the tracks and soundings so carefully laid down by Captain Vidal, it shows also the currents by which his ship was influenced. A vessel cruizing about like the Ætna in search of a sunken rock, with her reckoning properly attended to, and astronomical observations for latitude and longitude properly made, can show the direction and force of a current, on which dependance may be placed, Now within about forty-five miles of the north-east side of Bonavista, we find the following currents on this chart :

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Or, a mean distance of 12' in the twenty-four hours on the above course; or giving a current of about half a knot per hour.

It is true that there is a northerly set also on the chart, but the currents noted on it with the exception of this one are to the south-west.

We will now take the courses steered by the Charlotte from noon on the day she was lost, along with the westerly set shewn on the preceding day by the chronometer of about a mile an hour, and allow with this a set of S. 52° W., half a mile an hour. The case will stand thus:

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giving a course made good from noon to the time she struck S. 33° W. sixty miles. The westerly set of eight miles, or a mile an hour, is amply shown by the Charlotte's chronometers on the two preceding days; that of S. 52° W. four miles would have been but a just precaution when the vessel was running before the wind in the direction of

the current. Then if we consider the Charlotte to have been in 17° 4′ and 22° W., as shewn by her commander while on her voyage, by one of her chronometers, it will be seen by laying down this course that she will not even clear the eastern extreme of Bonavista! So that a little acceleration of the current on approaching the island, as might be expected to take place, a little wild steering with an erroneous compass would be quite enough to set her on the reefs, lying between three and four miles off the north-east side of it. Indeed the distance sixty miles brings her within six miles of them.

So much for the result of the data afforded by the Charlotte's log. When there was even a possibility of such data being correct, which the result has proved it to be, no seaman can say that the courses she was steering were justifiable.

Now let us see what is said of the reefs off Bonavista:—in p. 270 of the Atlantic Memoir above quoted, we read that "the eastern side of Bonavista is partly environed by a reef; and on the north-east are the reef on which the Hartwell East Indianan was lost in 1787, and on which the Resolution, Captain Cook, was nearly driven by a southerly current."

We further find in the same page that there are three cays between which there is sufficient depth of water for ships to anchor inside of them; "but many rocks are here scattered with only twelve or thirteen feet over them and four fathoms close along them." Between two of the cays the channel is three-quarters of a mile broad, and has regular soundings from fifteen to five fathoms, frequented by H.M.S. Bulldog in 1787, which vessel several times anchored, with one cay bearing N.E.b.E. and another S. W. in six or seven fathoms. It appears that there is also deep water between them and the shore.

Now the account given of the reef and reported by the American Consul's letter in page 562 of our August number, states that "it is 300 feet in length, under water, in the shape of a crescent, open to the northward, and the sea breaks only at particular times of tide." We should say at all times of tide, considering that there must always be a heavy sea on it, and the rise of tide being not more than 44 feet at the Cape Verde Islands.

Again the log says in page 681 "breakers were seen close ahead,” (what was the look out about that they were not seen till "close ahead") ship on the reef from ten to fifteen minutes," but the topsails, (the haliards having been let go by the run when the ship struck) and the courses were set and the ship forged off to the eastward, after which she just clears breakers on the lee bow." There is something more here than a single rock just under water. First it is a rock, then a reef, and now we have got two reefs, or a reef and afterwards (how long is not said) breakers which were just cleared. There is something more there after all than a single rock.

But we must pause for a moment and ask a question. The Charlotte had studding sails set on both sides; those on the larboard side were set on the 17th, those on the starboard on the 19th. She has the wind at N.N.E. and is steering S.W. Now the nearest way to throw her up into the wind, would have been to have put her helm a-port; but it is put to starboard, and she has therefore to go round four points

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