Fate
On 26 July Pickle was carrying dispatches from England for Admiral Lord Collingwood at Cadiz when Cannadey sighted Cape Santa Maria in the evening. He then set his course on that basis. At midnight the lookouts sighted broken water. The helmsman immediately tried to turn her but it was too late and she grounded. Pickle started filling rapidly with water, which caused her to tip to port. The crew took to her boats and landed on the Spanish shore. In the morning, Cannadey returned to the wreck where he found her unsalvageable as her bottom was completely stove in. He determined that she had wrecked on the Chipiona shoal. A Maltese diver worked for three days to recover the dispatches.
The court martial on 2 August attributed the wrecking to "an unaccountable error in reckoning" the distance traveled, and reprimanded Cannadey, recommending that he be more careful in the future. Later that year Cannadey took command of the hired armed lugger Black Joke.
Read more about this topic: HMS Pickle (1800)
Famous quotes containing the word fate:
“In separation, deadly as poison,
in union, brimming with nectar.
What, did fate make my love
out of both equally?”
—Hla Stavhana (c. 50 A.D.)
“... fate is not an eagle, it creeps like a rat.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“Is it our job to judge? The gendarme, policemen and bureaucrats have been especially prepared by fate for that job. Our job is to write, and only to write.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)