ROBINSON CRUSOES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 73, 26 March 1906, Page 5

ROBINSON CRUSOES.

A GALLANT NEW ZEALANDER'S FATE.

(Prom Onr Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, February 10

A romantic story of the doings of a shipwrecked crew who lived a Kobinson Crusoe life on a lonely island on. the west coast of Vancouver, reached England a few days ago. The tidings were received by Mr. James Robson, a South Shields banker, whose son Was one of the survivors. The ill-fated vessel was the King David, of Cardiff, of which Mr. A. W. Wollstein, of Spring Creek,, New Zealand, was chief officer. On December 13th she became unmanageable in. a gale, dragged her anchor, and went on some rocks. That evening all hands feft the vessel, except the captain and chief officer. Captain Davidson told the men to make for the shingly beach, a mile and a-half away, where through the glasses some ramshackle huts (afterwards found to be an Indian fishing camp) had been seen. The boat made two or three trips. On her first she landed, among others, the old sairmaker, Donald McLeod, sixty-four years of age. He landed on a slippery boulder, and as the boat pushed off to make another trip to the wreck, then unobservable in the darkness, he slipped and fell into the sea. The shock appeared to unbalance his mind, although he fell in shallow water and was quickly rescued he afterwards became insane. The steward insisted on a good supply of provisions being landed for the week, the boat making several trips to bring ashore bags of bread, casks of salt, meat, and other provisions. The stores were taken into one of the Indian huts and the shipwrecked, men did not want for food. When rescued they bad ample for another month. They commenced to gather drift wood and built a big fire on the shingle, as well as small fires outside the huts. They had their blankets and other effects—their chi?sts and bags having b/?en brought ashore—so that they were but little inconvenienced by the intense cold. PASSED IN THE NIGHT. Captain Davidson and Chief Officer Wollstein retainer! on the wreck for three days, while the wind split the top sails and the sea, rolled the vessel till the rocks on which she lay made great jagged holes into th,? steel plates of tbe hull. Then the mizzen stay went, and three days after the King David stranded the captain and chief officer left and joined their companions on shore. On the following day the castaways might have been taken off the island. They were only thirty miles away from Nootka Island, where a life-saving station hag been erected, but were in complete ignorance of this fact. On December 17 the steamer Queen City left Nootka, and Ttmst liavis passed quite closp to the wreck, but, as it was dark at the time, the plight of the shipwrecked men was not noticed.

Robson gives somr interesting details of his life on the lonely beach with his shipmates. Ignorant of the existence of the neighbouring settlement, they believed they had been thrown upon an. uninhabited coast, and that steamera might not come for month's. The Indian fishing camp gay.-? them hopes of a kind, and the men amused themselves in different ways. One couple went off with a harpoon, and after discovering a deer run they found many deer tracks. They lay in wait, thinking they might harpoon some venison, but were disappointed. Another party went off on a voyage of discovery, and foiuid fifteen Indian skulls in an Indian hut. Two others went many miles alons the beach to seek assistance, and returning in three days, informed their companions that they had met an Indian, who imparted the unwelcome news that no,succour would come to the camp until March.. This report threw the shipwrecked mariners into despair. SEVEN MEN LOST. A consultation was held, and Captain Davidson, as a last resource, decided to seek assistance by sending the ship's boat to Cape Beale, a hundred miles away. "Who will volunteer to go?" , asked Captain Davidson. There was a ready response to the captain's call. Chief Officer Wollstein offered to take command of the lifeboat, and was joined by six seamen. On December 21 the lifeboat was launched. The other seamen shook hands with their comrades, and a very affectins scene took place before the" lifeboat on what proved a fatal lifeboat was never heard of afterward. Two days after it left, a heavy gale blew from the southeast, and continued for five days. Little doubt is entertained that the gallant fellows p?rished in their heroic efforts to reach Capo Beale. The unfortunate sailmaker. who had become demented, did not give much trouble until one night he tried to jump into the fire upon the beach. After this he had to be carefully watched, and at times tied down in the hut. On one occasion the castaways saw a steamer's smoke on the horizon. Huge fires were lighted, in the hope of attracting attention, but the vessel was too far away to see the signals. As the days passed, the men began to think they were doomed to remain imprisoned on the coast for months to come. Preparations were in fnct being made to construct a second lifeboat to seek help.' when to the great joy of the men a stt?amer was seen aproachiner the island. She proved to be the Queen City, of the C.P.R. line, whose captain had sighted the battered hull, shattered spars and torn sails of the wreckeT ship, and had come close inshore to investigate. Then men were taken off. and eventually landed at Victoria, British Columbia. The poor fellow who had gone mad died after leaving the rescuing steamer.