Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/251

 of enlargement at present, and as a consequence fresh families hesitated to venture their fortunes in the new land, until some more regular and reliable means of gaining a livelihood were offered them than the precarious patronage of uncertain visitors, many of whom, now that free access had been given to Blackpool and Lytham through the opening of branch lines, were already being seduced from their old allegiance to Fleetwood, and attracted to the gayer promenades of those rival resorts.

In the month of December, 1852, and just at the Christmas season, a fearful hurricane swept over Fleetwood; slates, chimney tops, and boardings were torn from their fastenings, and hurled about the streets; indeed so terrific was the violence of this gale that at its height it was difficult for the pedestrian to avoid being forced along by its fury in whatsoever direction the huge gusts willed. During the storm a singular accident occurred in the harbour. The barque "Hope," which had arrived shortly before from America with timber, was lying in the river attached to one of the buoys, and by some carelessness the men employed in unloading her had neglected, on leaving their work, to close up the large square hole near the stem of the ship, through which the baulks of wood were discharged. The hurricane came on fiercely and suddenly from the west, and, to the dismay of the solitary watchman who had been left in charge of the vessel, heeled over her lightened hull so that the swollen and boisterous tide poured wave after wave through the unprotected aperture at her bows; a few minutes only were needed to complete the catastrophe, for as the vessel settled in the deep, no longer waves but continuous volumes of water rushed into her, and with a heavy lurch she rolled over on her side, the masts and more than half her hull being submerged. Fortunately, however, the remnant of the cargo was sufficiently buoyant to prevent her from vanishing bodily beneath the surface. The luckless guardian, whose feelings must have been far from enviable, was quickly rescued from the perilous position he occupied on the floating portion of the ship; but it was not until some weeks afterwards that they were able, in the words of the poet Cowper,

"To weigh the vessel up."

The "Hope," 415 tons register, was built up the river at the old port of Wardleys, being the only vessel of such dimensions