. The North Devon coast. ters in the history of Lundyafford interesting reading. The first is dramaticindeed, being nothing less than the wreck of theMontagu, first-class battleship, on the ShutterRock, at the south-westerly extremity of theisland, at ten minutes past tw^o oclock on thefoggy morning of May 30th, 1906. The Montaguwas one of a squadron executing manoeuvres in theWest. Coming up Channel, a dense fog shutdown upon the scene and confused the reckoningof the ships officers, who, thinking they werejust off Hartland Point, shifted her course into thefatal proximity of Lundy. In this p
. The North Devon coast. ters in the history of Lundyafford interesting reading. The first is dramaticindeed, being nothing less than the wreck of theMontagu, first-class battleship, on the ShutterRock, at the south-westerly extremity of theisland, at ten minutes past tw^o oclock on thefoggy morning of May 30th, 1906. The Montaguwas one of a squadron executing manoeuvres in theWest. Coming up Channel, a dense fog shutdown upon the scene and confused the reckoningof the ships officers, who, thinking they werejust off Hartland Point, shifted her course into thefatal proximity of Lundy. In this perilous un-certainty as to the exact situation of the ship. WRECK OF THE MONTAGU 117 when the captain should, by all the usages of theservice, have been on deck, he was in his cabin ;and not only the captain, but also the navigatinglieutenant was away from his post, the battleshipbeing at the time in charge of a junior the Montagu ran on to the sharp pinna-cles of the Shutter reef, and became immovable ;. THE MONTAGU, ON THE SHUTTER ROCK. completely impaled upon the rocky spikes, whichthrust right through the thick hull, and into theengine-room. Thus were the lives of 750 menimperilled, and a 14,000 ton ship, launched onlyso recently as 1903 and costing a million and aquarter of money, reduced to the value of old ironand steel. Captain Adair and his navigatinglieutenant were court-martialled and retired fromthe service. Fortunate it was for all on board that a heavy ii8 THE NORTH DEVON COAST sea was not running at the time, or all must haveperished. As it happened, the Montagu, althoughfilled with water, w^as so immovably fixed thatthere w^as little danger, and the crew, without muchdifiiculty, scaled the cliffs. The Admiralty at first endeavoured to lightenthe ship by removing the heavy guns and othertackle. Sister ships stood by while this was done,and then camels, steel tanks filled withcompressed air, were attached to the sides, to raiseher ; but after
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectdevonen, bookyear1908
