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SAMSON wrecks has been a very long one. Says Sir Walter Besant : "There is a shipwreck told of every rock of Scilly, and to many there are several shipwrecks ; as there are almost as many rocks of Scilly as there are days in the year, the stories would take long in the telling". In 1707 Sir Cloudesley Shovel was wrecked here, with three ships of the line, several other vessels having the narrowest of escapes. Two thousand lives were lost on this occasion. In 1875 the German steamer Schi/lcr struck on the Retarrier Ledges, not far from the Bishop Rock, in a thick fog. Her captain, an Englishman, was one of the 3 1 1 that perished. 279
