Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/118

 112 THE CORNWALL COAST centuries since, " neither is it possible to get parfitt notice of the whence and what the Ships ar that yearly do suffer on and near the Lizard, for it is seldom that any man escapes and the ships split in small pieces." The Manacles (meii- eglos, " church rocks ") lie about half a mile from the shore, and extend for about a square mile ; all but one are covered by the highest tides, which of course renders them the more fatal. The name " church rocks " has some connection with the far-seen landmark of St. Keverne tow^er. If we could give the whole list of wrecks we should probably find it rival that of the Scillies, perhaps surpass ; the Manacles lie even more directly in the route of navigation. It is just a century since two vessels, the one homeward and the other outward-bound, were wrecked almost at the same moment near here. One was the trans- port Dispatch, returning from the Peninsula with many officers and men on board ; the other was the eighteen-gun brig Primrose, bound for the seat of war. There is a graphic account in the now defunct Coimish Magazine — a magazine that was obviously too good for the public, and therefore died much regretted by its few but select admirers. It was a bitter and rough January, 1809. "At half -past three on Sunday morning the Dispatch, an old ship in bad repair, was driven on the rocks near Lowland Point, and speedily became a total wreck. While men and women were rushing through the gale with news of this disaster, and men and horses were being dashed about by the roaring sea, there came tidings that at the other end of the Manacles another ship filled with soldiers was foundering. In those days there was no Lifeboat Institution