Ships were lost during these dark voyages, and said to have had the reputation of being haunted by the ghosts of the dead crews. It was supposed that pirates had been frequently found asleep, having been drowned in their berths, and were taken up dead. The master of a transport laden with corn had gone on shore on the southern coast of Spain in search of fresh provisions, when he found in an unfrequented bay one of the Spanish prisoners of war, who had been cast on shore by some of his fellow captives, and was supposed to have been murdered. On his return to the ship, having procured a good stock of biscuit and wine, he lay to off the shore, that the prisoner, who had been on board, might come on board with them. They were in this situation about midnight, when the ship began to sink, as if the bottom was sprung. About this time a thick mist came on, and the seamen began to take alarm, when they saw a figure on the deck, which, as they thought, moved and talked. In an instant the figure went down below. At this time the master of the ship, being a brave man, went down to the cabin, with a lamp, which burnt upon the table; he saw the ghosts of the shipmates sitting and drinking together, having their wounds bound up. As he was returning he met the mate, who was likewise in great fright, saying, 'You are a damned fellow; you are a coward; you have frightened away the ghosts.' Soon after this a heavy groaning was heard, and a shipmate cried out, 'Oh Lord, have mercy upon us, I am going to hell!' The mate begged that one of the dead should be returned. After some time, the master returned, and told the mate, he had seen several of the dead rising up, and moving forward; but that he, seeing they could not bear the sight of him, had entreated them not to hurt him, but to suffer him to go. He said he had spoken to them, and they answered him, 'All is well with us, be silent.' As he was going on shore he found one of the sailors and the dead man lying side by side. The body had a wound in the forehead, and blood was running down from the nostrils. All this was attested by the master, and many more, who swore it was true. In the following year, when the French fleet put to sea from Rochefort, the _Hussar_ transport was driven by a gale on the French coast, and lost sight of all the rest of the fleet. The people soon agreed among themselves that they had been carried away by pirates. There was indeed a vessel at the distance of about two leagues from them, with one mast standing, who seemed to be chasing them with her boats, and who, they concluded, was employed by some pirates, in order to plunder them. They immediately manned the boats and began to row. The vessel they supposed to be a pirate, made no resistance, and allowed the Frenchmen to board her, where they found their mates, who, upon their inquiring into the manner of their being there, told them, that they were carried out of their course by the force of the winds and waves; and that when they were so low, that they could see nothing but the ocean around them, they discovered a strange vessel just before them, which they supposing to be a pirate, had immediately put out to sea. She was supposed to be one of the ships sent out by the English against the French during the war. This vessel they found was a British man of war, commanded by Lord Edward Russell, who took the poor prisoners, whom he found in so disconsolate a condition, out of their greatest danger. From some of the seamen who were on board the ship, and whom the captain had received the most friendly assistance from, he heard of some of the circumstances here related, and having inquired from whom and how long they had been lost, they described to him the vessel and the appearances they had seen. It was thought a miracle that any of the crew had lived to tell the story, for about half of them were lost; it is supposed, in endeavouring to fly from the other. This gentleman was in the battle of Malaga in the year 1706; that place being so ill-fortified, and so remote from assistance, he found a great number of men of war that were lost by the storm and the enemy's ships. But a more extraordinary accident happened in the year 1710. In the month of October, a man of war lying near the Isle of Isigny, on the French coast, was boarded by an English privateer; a sailor being observed to get on board the enemy's vessel, and the person in authority on board her took him for an officer, ordered a boat to be manned, and with one or two shots returned him to his vessel. This did not go unpunished, for after this action, the boatswain of the privateer was told that several of his companions had gone down in one of the boats that were sunk, by some English privateers, to whom they had been delivered; and a second time, that a Spanish ship had been run down by some English, but by whom they were not able to learn. The ship did not return to her station till the 14th of November, when she came into Brest. It was supposed some accident had happened, but there was no person found that could tell what it was; she was supposed to have sunk from the shock of a shoal of rocks that lay just outside of the harbour. When the man of war was near that shoal, she was observed by the Spanish captain, lying with a topgallant-sail to the wind, and the master's mate and several hands in the boats; he was afterwards told the account of the ship, and his shipmates having been left in a sinking condition. These things induced the commander to put in directly to the place where this accident happened, and there, by means of a shallop, he took out several of the men, who told him they had been drowned, and that the ship sunk immediately. They had no sooner left their ship, than the wind came to the west, and they being left at such a distance from the shore that they could not reach it in time, were compelled to take shelter among a number of rock islands. They saw the ship sink, and remained eight days on one of the islands, suffering great distresses, for they had no victuals but what they brought with them, and could get no assistance from any of the vessels that passed near them, for all were convoying English men of war, of which the channel had been much infested by the French; and they would even plunder their own fellow subjects that had been taken and were drowned. These circumstances occasioned them to make a very long and painful voyage to St. Malo, where they took shelter for several weeks. They found in the port a man of war that had been sunk by an English privateer, for the same reasons; and the French having discovered that they were Frenchmen, sent them to Brest. It is related, that two Portuguese, and a Dutchman, were all that escaped the ship that was run down by the Spaniards near the port of St. Sebastian. When the master of the ship was put on board the privateer, and had told his story, one of the Portuguese was brought before the captain, and was examined as to what he had seen the night the accident happened. After he had given an account, in a few words, of the accident, he was very soon after let out, and was told he might go down into the hold of the vessel to drink a bowl of punch, and smoke a pipe of tobacco; but he had hardly quitted the deck when a shot from the ship grazed his head, upon which he begged the captain to take him into the forecastle; as the Spaniards are such rash and ill-conditioned fellows, he would not be sure of his life while he should remain in the open air; he was accordingly shown into the forecastle, and remained there in an extreme fear and consternation; when the privateer returned to her port, he found the ship was gone. He was forced to take shelter a second time among the rocks, where he saw the Spanish privateer, he being now so near her, which in all probability had a great share in his determination. He was also observed to quit the rock before she arrived, and take shelter on board a Spanish vessel, whose boats did not leave the vessel for some days, and at last, after eleven weeks of miserable weather, the ship arrived safe in St. Malo. The Dutchman, who was one of the English seamen, told his story to the captain of the vessel, who thought proper to let him have his liberty again. Sir George Byng, in his voyage to the Straits of Magellan, found a vessel, whose bottom had been struck, and which was driven on shore upon a rock in the river of St. Maur, where there was not six inches' depth of water, and where the sea broke with a horrible noise; she was sunk by the violence of the sea. The seamen had contrived a sort of barge to convey them ashore, upon the shore of St. Maur, where they had been cast from the wreck of the vessel. It was the opinion of the crew, that she had been driven upon the rocks by a violent storm. The sailors who had shipped themselves on board the vessel, which was lost on the rocks,