3-047-096 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Gales: wreck of the Royal Adelaide near Portland, 1872. Ship bound from London to Sydney, which '...was wrecked on the western side of Chesil Bank...A gentleman from Weymouth, Mr. Hamilton Williams, who saw the ship go ashore, has sent us a sketch..."[We] found the coastguard in full force, burning bluelights to attract the notice of the ill-fated ship...Fearfully she heaved and rolled in the awful sea...The cradle was rigged, and the coastguard worked like more than men. The passengers and crew were hauled ashore. Through the boiling sea came one after another, grasped long ere they reached the shore by the friendly arm of some stout seaman...The men lighted a tar-barrel and put it so as to throw as much light as possible upon the scene of work...In a few minutes it was seen that the ship had split right in two...Once commenced, the work of destruction was not long, though still the cradle was going to and fro, and still there remained others to be saved. These were all congregated astern; and when the last two or three were already in the cradle, about to try their fate, as many others had happily and successfully done before them, the rope broke, they fell into the cruel surf, and were seen no more".' From "Illustrated London News", 1872.