e, and steering, as he had so much reason to suppose
he was doing, straight for St. Helena.

It is very important to remark, in passing, to professional men, that
no ship off the Cape, and under any circumstances, ought ever to bear
up, without first heaving the deep sea-lead. If soundings are obtained
on the Bank, it is a sure symptom that the ship is not sufficiently
advanced to the westward to enable her to steer with safety to the
north-north-westward for St. Helena. It is clear the ship in question
must have omitted this precaution.

All that is known of this fatal shipwreck is simply that the Arniston,
with a flowing sheet, and going nine knots, ran among the breakers in
Struy's Bay, nearly a hundred miles to the eastward of the Cape. The
masts went instantly by the board, and the sea, which broke completely
over all, tore the ship to pieces in a few minutes; and out of her
whole crew, passengers, women, and children, only half-a-dozen seamen
reached the coast alive. All these could tell was, that they bore up
and made all sail for St. Helena, judging themselves well round the
Cape. This scanty information, however, was quite enough to establish
the important fact that this valuable ship, and all the lives on board
of her, were actually sacrificed to a piece of short-sighted economy.
That they might have been saved, had she been supplied with the worst
chronometer that was ever sent to sea, is also quite obvious. I am
sure practical men will agree with me, that, in assuming sixty seconds
a-day as the limit of the uncertainty of a watch's rate, I have taken
a quantity four or five times greater than there was need for. Surely
no time-keeper that was ever sold as such by any respectable
watchmaker for more than thirty or forty guineas, has been found to
go so outrageously ill as not to be depended upon for one week, within
less than ten or fifteen seconds a-day. And as I have shown that a
chronometer whose rate was uncertain, even to an extent five or six
times as great as this, would have saved the Arniston, any further
comment on such precious economy is needless.

CHAPTER XV.

SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS DIMINISHING THE NUMBER AND SEVERITY OF NAVAL
PUNISHMENTS.

I trust that most of my brother-officers who have commanded ships can
lay their hands upon their hearts and conscientiously declare they
have never inflicted an unjust punishment. I can only confess with
much sorrow, that I, unfortunately, am not of