THE ROMNEY.


'In the month of November, 1804,' writes Brenton, in his _Naval
History_, 'the severity of blockading the Ports of the Texel was
practically experienced in the loss of the Romney, of fifty guns,
commanded by Captain the Hon. John Colville.'

The Romney sailed from Yarmouth on the 18th of November, under orders
to join Rear-Admiral Russel, off the Texel; but on the 19th she went
aground on the south-west part of the sand-bank off the Haaks. Regular
soundings had been made during the run from Yarmouth; and a few
minutes before the ship struck, the pilots were confident they were on
the edge of the Broad Fourteens. They then sounded, and the pilots
proposed standing in under double-reefed topsails, and foretopmast
stay-sail, with the wind S.S.W., until they should be in ten or eleven
fathoms. To this Captain Colville objected, as from the unsettled
appearance of the weather, and the thickness of the fog, he deemed it
would be imprudent to approach the shore. They were accordingly in the
act of wearing, when they perceived, through the fog, a large ship
bearing east by north. They stood towards her to make her out more
plainly, and in four or five minutes they discovered that she was a
large merchant vessel on shore.[7] Upon this, the pilots were anxious
to haul off on the larboard tack; but before the ship could be brought
to the wind, she struck. The wind was increasing, the fog very great,
and a heavy sea rolling in. In spite of every exertion, the water
gained upon the vessel so fast, that all hope of saving her was soon
at an end; and had she been in deep water, she must have sunk