The following account of the loss of the “Avenger” is extracted from the “Morning Herald.”
“We were running at the rate of ten knots an hour,
from Lisbon to Gibraltar, bound to Malta, when, on the
night of 20th Dec., at four bells (10 o'clock), in the first
watch, the ship suddenly struck on a reef of rocks. At this
moment Capt. Napier was on the paddle-box, talking to
the master. Lieut. Rooke, one of the survivors, was in his
cabin, in the act of taking off his coat. The gunner (another
survivor) ran on deck in a state of nudity. Immediately
she struck, all hands rushed on deck; as they did so, she
heeled over on her broadside, the mainmast fell across the
paddle-box boat, and no doubt a number of those engaged
in clearing it away were killed. The crew appeared completely
paralysed; nothing was heard but now and then an
exclamation, ‘Oh God! Oh God! we are all lost.’ Heavy
seas swept over the vessel, and scarcely a man could retain
his hold. The last seen of Lieut. Marryat was his being
washed from his hold, and carried away, with some twenty
more, to leeward. At last, Lieut. Rooke, the purser, second
master, gunner, and four others, contrived to get into a
quarter-boat. Here Providence interposed to save them;
in lowering the boat the foremost fall got jammed, and the
after one going freely, the boat had her stern in water and
her bows in the air, when a jacket belonging to one of the
men fortunately got into the sheave-hole of the after-fall,
stopped it, and enabled them to cut the falls adrift. After
pushing off from the wreck, they endeavoured to regain
her, to render such assistance as was possible, and to pick up
any of the crew: to approach her they found impossible.
The wind blew a gale from the southward. The sea was
very high, and breaking completely over her. After
remaining as near as they could get for two hours, they bore
away for Galita, distant about fourteen miles; an hour after
they had done so, the wind suddenly shifted to the north,
and blew harder than it had done from the other quarter.
This compelled them to bear up again, which they did, for
the coast of Barbary. On their way they passed the wreck,
over which the sea was making awful sweeps. Soon after
day-light they made the coast of Barbary, having run all
night under a small lug-sail, and steered with an oar. In
running the boat in, she grounded on a reef, and all hands
were thrown out; the boy, however, regained the boat,
kept to her, and drifted ashore alive. Of the remainder,
only Lieut. Rooke, the gunner, and steward, were saved.
The others perished in the surf. The Arabs treated them
kindly, dried their clothes, and gave them warm milk.
After a repose they walked 36 miles, till they could procure
horses, on which they rode to Biserta. Here they received
every hospitality from the governor and the consuls. A
boat took them to Tunis, whence Sir T. Reade, the British
Consul, sent a despatch to Malta. The Hecate started
immediately for the fatal spot, whither the Bey of Tunis
had already sent vessels, but not a vestige of the wreck remained.
It is supposed that, with the shift of the wind,
she heeled over into deep water and sunk. There are from
30 to 50 fathoms all round these rocks, which are steep to
within a ship's length. The total number lost is 253.”
