"Of the time and the cause of their destruction," continued the old
man, "I know nothing certain: they have stood as you have seen them
for uncounted time; and while all other ships wrecked on this unhappy
coast have gone to pieces, and rotted, and sunk away in a few years,
these two haunted hulks have neither sunk in the quicksand, nor has
a single spar or board been displaced. Maritime legend says, that two
ships of Denmark having had permission, for a time, to work deeds of
darkness and dolor on the deep, were at last condemned to the whirlpool
and the sunken rock, and were wrecked in this bonnie bay, as a sign
to seamen to be gentle and devout. The night when they were lost was
a harvest evening of uncommon mildness and beauty: the sun had newly
set; the moon came brighter and brighter out; and the reapers, laying
their sickles at the root of the standing corn, stood on rock and bank,
looking at the increasing magnitude of the waters, for sea and land
were visible from Saint Bees to Barnhourie.
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