Last
Friday, in a hard gale of wind, the snow Four Sisters, Captain Meldall, bound
from Arundel to this port, with balk and deals, was drove into Tramore; the
cargo and crew were saved, but the vessel lies dry on the beach, is greatly
damaged and its thought cannot be got off.
At the same time the ship two Brothers,
Peter Nelson Morck, master, bound from Dram to Ross, laden with deals, was
drove into Tramore, and is since gone to pieces; the cargo and hands were
likewise happily saved.[1]
To
The Committee for Conducting the Free Press
Gentlemen,
Of all the acts of
benevolence on which the human mind can exercise its powers, the extension of
aid and assistance to shipwrecked mariners is certainly the foremost; a most
remarkable instance of which has lately been shown to two Danish ships and
their crews, forced by a storm into the bay of Tramore, six miles from this
city, on Friday the 10th instant. One called the Four Sisters, Captain Mendall,
master, bound from Arundel with balks and deals, 400 tons burden; the other
bound from Dram, Peter Neilson Morck, master, of 300 tons, laden with deal
boards only.
When
the masters of the above ships found themselves within the two heads which form
the entrance to the bay, and seeing nothing before them but present death, all
efforts to weather the heads proving ineffectual, they cast their anchors and
cut down their masts, but the tempest was to violent, the sea so high and the
ships so heavy, that their cables soon went like packthread and they ran adrift
into the bay, about one o’clock in the morning of Saturday the 12th instant.
Mr John Rogers of Tramore coast officer,
seeing their situation, on the evening of Friday the 11th, and that they must
inevitably be shipwrecked, continued out the whole night; when they came near
the shore and struck, they vainly hoped, by the assistance of their longboats
to be able to reach the beach, he rode out, at the imminent danger of his life
into the sea to his saddle skirts and waved his hand to them to continue in
their ships, the two ships being near each other and nigh the shore, but the
captain and mate of one of them would not be persuaded to do so and they
immediately leaped into the longboat, which as soon as it had quitted the ship,
overset, cast them into the sea and was presently dashed to pieces.
Mr Rogers seeing the situation the captain and
mate of the Two Brothers were in, formed a line of men from a final cable he
brought with him fastened to the beach, and with the utmost difficulty and
danger to his own men, who waded into the sea, they brought the captain and
mate on shore. The tide falling, the remainder of the crew, and the crew of the
other ship, all got safe to land. The storm still continuing, and the sea
running mountains high, the next tide of flood split the ship called the Two
brother to pieces, and the whole strand was covered with her deals.
But
bellies the humanity shown by this worthy gentleman, Mr Rogers, to the crews of
each ship, ( who declared they expected to be knocked on the head by the
country people, and the cargoes carried off) such has been his assiduity, his
unwearied, indefatigable pains and attention, not only to the property of the
unfortunate owners, but to his Majesty’s duties arising out of the cargoes,
that I shall venture confidently to affirm, that not a single board, or a
single piece of balk of either cargo has been rifled, or even lost. The
salvage, compared with the bills of lading, prove my assertion.
Mr Rogers having a comfortable landed
property at Tramore bay, and always residing there before he came into revenue,
has, from his repeated acts of humanity, distinguished himself in saving the
lives of mariners and the cargoes of many ships wrecked in that bay; and he has
so far civilised the inhabitants of that populous part of the sea coast, that
not only the thanks of the public are due to him, (nay of the King of Denmark,
if he regards the lives of near 30 of his subjects; that is, supposing Kings now
a-days regarded the lives of their subjects) but his Majesty’s board of
commissioners should take him into their immediate consideration, reflecting
honour on the gentleman who (well knowing his merit) procured for him that
trifling appointment: not that I would wish to see him ever removed from the
place he is in, but he merits, if ever man merited, an ample augmentation of
his salary, for I am well assured, and on enquiry it will be found, that he has
for near 30 years past, ( though but four years in the revenue) saved more
ships and cargoes, and the lives of more sailors, than any one man in his
Majesty’s dominions.
Perhaps, as a merchant, my regard for
trade may on occasion carry me too far, but as we are a mercantile state,
allowances will be made, and, in consideration thereof, the humanity, zeal,
spirit and exemplary good conduct of Mr Rogers should be made known in all the
public papers of this kingdom, by an extract from this letter, to urge and
stimulate other coast officers by his example, to a strenuous discharge of
their duty.
I
am, gentlemen
Your most obedient,
Humble servant.
A.B.
Waterford, April 21.[2]
John
Rogers was appointed coast officer in 1773, aged circa 47. He was born circa
1726, the son of Benjamin Rogers of Tramore. His father, Benjamin was one of
the first individuals to promote Tramore as a tourist attraction advertising
two slate lodges for rent and the availability of small plots of land to
persons willing to build on them, in 1754, as there was ‘a want of proper accommodation
for gentlemen, ladies and their attendants.’
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