It would have been humiliating and afflicting, had this record of the Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy, in which there is so much to admire, been closed with the details of a calamity in any way disgraceful to the service.  Truth has required that the words ‘dismay’ and ‘panic’ should be used in the foregoing relation; but the terrible suddenness of the event, the instantaneous shock which broke up the Avenger in a moment, without the preparatory warning of ’breakers ahead,’ or the previous notice of rocks or shoals in sight, will more than account for the helplessness to which the crew were reduced.  They had not time to brace up their shattered nerves.  The noble bearing of the two lieutenants, Rooke and Marryat, cool as they were, and in full command of their energies in the midst of crashing timbers and perishing men, places the character of the British seaman in its title light, and winds up our narrative with two more examples of naval heroism.

FOOTNOTES: 

[19] The party in the boat consisted of Lieutenant Rooke; Mr. Betts, second master; Mr. Ayling, master’s assistant; Mr. Larcom, gunner; Dr. Steel, the surgeon; Wm. Hills, captain’s steward:  John Owen, stoker; and the boy Morley.

LIST OF THE SHIPWRECKS OF THE ROYAL NAVY, BETWEEN 1793 AND 1850.

------------+--------------+----+--------------+---+---

---+----------------
|              |    |  Commanding  |No.|Number|
Name of   |   Date.      |Guns|  Officer’s   |of |  of  |  Where lost. 
Ship.    |              |    |    Name.     |men| lost.|
------------+--------------+----+--------------+---+------+-

---------------
Advice,     | June  1, 1793|  4 |Edward Tyrell | 30| None |Bokell Key,
Cutter    |              |    |              |   |      |Honduras. 
Amphitrite  | Jan. 20, 1794| 24 |Anthony Hunt  |160| None |On a sunken
|              |    |              |   |      |rock in the
|              |    |              |   |      |Mediterranean. 
Ardent      | April,   1794| 64 |Robert M.     |500|  All |Blown up or
|              |    |  Sutton      |   |      |burnt off
|              |    |              |   |      |Corsica. 
Amethyst    | Dec. 29, 1795| 44 |Thomas        |300| None |Striking on
|              |    |  Affleck     |   |      |rocks off
|              |    |              |   |      |Guernsey. 
Arab, Sloop | June 10, 1796| 14 |Stephen       | 96|Capt. |Rocks off the
|              |    |  Seymour     |   |      |Glenan Isles,
|              |    |              |   |      |near Brest. 
Active      |Sept. 15, 1796| 32 |Ed. Leveson   |215| None |Running on shore
|              |    |  Gower       |   |      |at Anticosti
|              |    |              |   |      |River St.
|              |    |              |   |      |Lawrence. 
Amphion     |Sept. 22, 1796| 32 |Isaac Pellew  |215|Grter.|Burnt by
|              |    |              |   |pt. of|accident, and