'The LAURA, Gracie, from London for Maryland, with 135 convicts on board, was drove on shore the 27th instant near Warmer (sic) Castle. The captain and all the ship's crew saved except the cabin boy. 37 of the convicts are also saved; the rest drowned or escaped.' (1)

In the same issue of Lloyd's List, the port news from Dover describes the weather as 'the wind blowing extremely hard, and much snow' on the 27th, and the wind at Deal on the same day was NE.

'They write from Deal, that on Friday last was drove ashore near Warmer [sic] Castle, the LAURA, Grace, bound to Maryland, with convicts to the number of 135, of whom were saved 37; all the rest were either drowned or escaped. The master and crew were all saved, except the cabin boy.' (3)

Source (2) gives the date of loss as the reporting date of 31-JAN-1748, and also gives the number of convicts lost as 98, although source (1) states that some of these escaped rather than drowned. Source (3) confirms the date of loss as expressed in source (1).

At the time of loss the Julian Calendar was still in use in England, with the New Year beginning on 25th March. Therefore dates between 1st January and 24th March inclusive are one year later in modern reckoning (New Style) and the date of loss in the record has been amended to 1749 to reflect this; source (2), however, follows source (1) in expressing the date of loss as 1748 (Old Style). Some contemporary sources, such as (3), were already using New Style, before its official adoption in 1752.

Master: Grace (3); Gracie (1)(2)
Crew Lost: 1 (1)(2)(3)
Passengers: 135 (2)(3)
Passengers Lost: 98 (2); some of these apparently escaped (1)(3)

Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss

<1> Lloyd's, 1969, Lloyd's list 1741-1945, 1376 31-JAN-1748, Page Nos. N/a (Bibliographic reference). SKE6342.

<2> Larn, Richard and Bridget, 1995, Shipwreck index of the British Isles, volume 2 : Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Sussex, Kent (Mainland), Kent (Downs), Goodwin Sands, Thames (Bibliographic reference). SKE31910.

<3> Sherborne Mercury, 06-FEB-1749, No.2 (Newspaper). SKE56230.