At the head of the bay it broke in a fearful line of white breakers, which rushed up to a height of 23 vertical feet above the highest spring-tides.

Their force must have been prodigious; for at the Fort a cannon with its carriage, estimated at four tons in weight, was moved 15 feet inwards.

A schooner was left in the midst of the ruins, 200 yards from the beach.

The first wave was followed by two others, which in their retreat carried away a vast wreck of floating objects.

In one part of the bay, a ship was pitched high and dry on shore, was carried off, again driven on shore, and again carried off.