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:
“For after all man knows mighty little, and may some day learn enough of his own ignorance to fall down again and pray. Not that I care. Only, if such is God’s will, and Fate and Evolution—let there be God!”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“My fate cries out,
And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“For when we must resign our vital breath,
Our Loves by Fate benighted,
We by this friendship shall survive in death,
Even in divorce united.
Weak Love through fortune or distrust
In time forgets to burn,
But this pursues us to the Urn,
And marries either’s Dust.”
—Thomas Stanley (1625–1678)