Hence shipwrecks are very
frequent;" and "in a coming tide, accompanied by a strong westerly wind,
it is almost impossible for boats to put off or to live in the sea."
"It not unfrequently happens that these accidents occur in the
night-time, in very hazy weather, or at ebb tide. In the latter case it
is necessary for boats to be taken in carts over the sands down to
low-water mark, before any assistance can be attempted.
"If the captain of the vessel be obstinate, and trust to his own skill,
he increases the danger. When the crews of the vessels take to their own
boats, and disobey the directions of the Southport pilots, their
jeopardy is tenfold greater, and their loss almost inevitable."[48]
Nearly one hundred vessels have been wrecked on this coast within the
last thirty years, and more than half of them totally lost. Of these
calamities the particulars are upon record. Which of them may have given
rise to the events here detailed we have no means of ascertaining.
It was at the close of a bright and memorable evening in October that I
had carelessly flung the reins upon the neck of my horse, as I traversed
the bare and almost interminable sands skirting the Lancashire coast.
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