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The story of the shipwreck of the Arniston came up indirectly on the list
about four years ago (mentioned by Jan Kalivoda incidentally). Basil Hall
was part of the convoy that was sailing from India to England when the
Arniston was lost due to a terrible error in longitude in May of 1815.

Here's his story:
"I have often enough been close to wars and rumours of wars, but was never
in a regular sea-fight; and though I have also witnessed a few shipwrecks
and disasters, I never was myself in much danger of what might be honestly
called a lee shore; neither is it my good fortune to be able to recount,
from personal knowledge, any scenes of hardship or suffering from hunger,
cold, or any other misery. My whole professional life, in short, has been
one of such comparative ease and security, that I cannot now remember ever
going far beyond twenty-four hours without a good bellyful. Still I have
often been forced to take a high degree of interest in formidable adventures
of this kind, from their happening in fleets of which my own ship formed a
part, or from these incidents including among the sufferers persons to whom
I was attached.

"In the year 1815, I accompanied a convoy of homeward-bound Indiamen from
Ceylon, and a right merry part of the voyage it was while we ran down a
couple of thousand miles of the south-east trade-wind; for these hospitable
floating nabobs, the East India captains, seldom let a day pass without
feasting one another; and we, their naval protectors, came in for no small
share of the good things, for which we could make but a poor return. Along
with our fleet, there sailed from Ceylon a large ship, hired as a transport
by Government to bring home invalid soldiers. There were about 500 souls in
her; of these a hundred were women, and more than a hundred children. I was
accidentally led to take a particular interest in this ill-fated vessel,
from the circumstance of there being four fine boys on board, sons of a
military friend of mine at Point de Galle. I had become so well acquainted
with the parents of these poor little fellows during my frequent visits to
Ceylon, that one day, before sailing, I playfully offered to take a couple
of the boys in my brig, the Victor, an eighteen-gun sloop of war; but as I
could not accommodate the whole family, the parents, who were obliged to
remain abroad, felt unwilling to separate the children, alas! and my offer
was declined.

"Off we all sailed, and reached the neighbourhood of the Cape without
encountering anything in the way of an adventure; there, however, commenced
the the disasters of the unfortunate Arniston, as this transport was called.
She had no chronometer on board; a most culpable and preposterous omission
in the outfit of a ship destined for such a voyage. The master told me that
he himself was not in circumstances to purchase so expensive an instrument,
the cost of a good chronometer being at least fifty or sixty guineas, and
that the owners considered the expense needless. He also stated that on his
remonstrating still more, and urging upon these gentlemen that their
property would be ten times more secure if he were furnished with the most
approved means of taking good care of it, he was given to understand, that,
if he did not choose to take the ship to sea without a chronometer, another
captain could easily be found who would make no such new-fangled scruples.
The poor master shrugged his shoulders, and said he would do his best; but
having often rounded the Cape, he knew the difficulties of the navigation,
when there was nothing but the dead reckoning to trust to. During our
passage from Ceylon, it was the practice every day, at one o'clock, for the
Indiamen, as well as the men-of-war, to make signals showing the longitude
of each ship by chronometer. Thus we had all an opportunity of comparing the
going of our respective time-keepers, and thus, too, the master of the
Arniston was enabled to learn his place so accurately, that if he had only
kept company with his friends the Indiamen, each of whom was provided with
at least four or five chronometers, the deficiency in his equipment might
never have led to the dreadful catastrophe which speedily followed the loss
of this assistance.

"It was late in the month of May when we reached the tempestuous regions of
the Cape; and we were not long there before a furious gale of wind from the
westward dispersed the fleet, and set every one adrift upon his own
resources. The poor Arniston was seen at sunset, on the day the gale
commenced, with most of her sails split, but not otherwise in danger, for
she had a good offing,  and the wind was not blowing on shore. Three heavy
gales followed in such quick succession during the next week, that not only
the ordinary course, but the velocity of the current was changed, and
instead of running, as it almost always does, to the westward, it set, on
the days in question, to the south-eastward. According to the most moderate
allowance for the current, all circumstances being taken into consideration,
any navigator might fairly have supposed that, in the five days which
elapsed from the 24th of May to the 28th inclusive, his ship would have been
drifted to the westward by the current at least a hundred miles. Our
chronometers, however, distinctly showed us that we had been carried, not,
as usual, to the westward, but actually to the eastward, a distance of more
than a hundred miles; so that, in less than a week, there occurred upwards
of two hundred miles of error in the dead reckoning.

"The master of the Arniston, doubtless, after making every allowance,
according to the best authorities, and working by the most exact rules of
navigation of which he could avail himself, naturally inferred that his ship
was more than a hundred miles to the westward of the Cape, and he probably
considered himself justified in bearing up before a south-easterly gale, and
steering, as he had so much reason to suppose he was doing, straight for St.
Helena.

"It is very important to remark, in passing, to professional men, that no
ship off the Cape, and under any circumstances, ought ever to bear up,
without first heaving the deep sea-lead. If soundings are obtained on the
Bank, it is a sure symptom that the ship is not sufficiently advanced to the
westward to enable her to steer with safety to the north-north-westward for
St. Helena. It is clear the ship in question must have omitted this
precaution.

"All that is known of this fatal shipwreck is simply that the Arniston, with
a flowing sheet, and going nine knots, ran among the breakers in Struy's
Bay, nearly a hundred miles to the eastward of the Cape. The masts went
instantly by the board, and the sea, which broke completely over all, tore
the ship to pieces in a few minutes; and out of her whole crew, passengers,
women, and children, only half-a-dozen seamen reached the coast alive. All
these could tell was, that they bore up and made all sail for St. Helena,
judging themselves well round the Cape. This scanty information, however,
was quite enough to establish the important fact that this valuable ship,
and all the lives on board of her, were actually sacrificed to a piece of
short-sighted economy.

"That they might have been saved, had she been supplied with the worst
chronometer that was ever sent to sea, is also quite obvious. I am sure
practical men will agree with me, that, in assuming sixty seconds a-day as
the limit of the uncertainty of a watch's rate, I have taken a quantity four
or five times greater than there was need for. Surely no time-keeper that
was ever sold as such by any respectable watchmaker for more than thirty or
forty guineas, has been found to go so outrageously ill as not to be
depended upon for one week, within less than ten or fifteen seconds a-day.
And as I have shown that a chronometer whose rate was uncertain, even to an
extent five or six times as great as this, would have saved the Arniston,
any further comment on such precious economy is needless."

I have nothing to add here. It's just another interesting navigation story
from the pen of Basil Hall [taken from the gutenberg.org edition of "The
Lieutenant and Commander"]. Incidenally, the small town at the head of the
bay in South Africa is known to this day as 'Arniston'.

 -FER
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars

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