Castaways in the Southern Ocean

Press, 28 March 1981, Page 17

Castaways in the Southern Ocean

The Castaways of Disappointment Island. By H. Escott-lnman. S. W. Partridge and Co., London, 1911. by Ca PPer Press, Christchurch, 1980. 319 pp. $3O. (Reviewed by Ted Glasgow) Ihe four-masted barque Dundonald (220 a tons), bound from Sydnev to Falmouth by way of Cape Horn with a cargo of wheat, was wrecked o n Disappointment Island, one of the Auckland group, on March 7, 1907. The captain was not sure of the ship's position because for some days the weather had been cloudy, making observations of the sun impossible. It was a dirty night of hail and sleet driven by a gale, when (he Dundonald. a last-minute effort to claw off the land having failed, struck stern first at the base of high, vertical cliffs. Twelve of the crew were never seen again. The remaining 16, one of whom later died, made a perilous escape from a yard arm and scrambled up the cliff to the desolation of Disappointment Island. ; This disaster occurred 74 years ago, • well within the. life span of many who will read this book, including this reviewer; but it is difficult in this age of accurate navigational aids, instant world-wide radio communications and air transport, to comprehend the plight of these castaways. There was almost no warning, so they had no chance of saving anything from the wreck, though later they did manage to bring ashore some rope and canvas. They were ill-clad, some without boots, i They had no shelter, no food, no water, and not much hope. In due course, perhaps after three or four months, the Dundonald would be posted, overdue, and later missing. The crew would be given up for lost, and nobody would know where the ship sank. They were on a most inhospitable island, one of the wettest, coldest and most miserable spots known

to man. The chance of survival must have looked slim. The survivors were ordinary men of mixed races and nationalities," united in adversity by the comradeship of a crew and more strongly by the will to live. They lived at first oh the raw flesh of nesting mollymawks. One man had a box < i of matches, from, which they lit a fire 1 { which was never allowed to burn out. > f Later they were able to add seal flesh and ; J an edible root to their diet, and to make » garments of a sort from the sealskins. < They lived in burrows, dug with sticks and ! hands in the side of a hill. The second mate, and others among the ’ survivors, knew that there were depots for shipwrecked sailors on the main island of the group. Auckland Island, but between Disappointment and Auckland Island lay six miles of open sea. the Southern Ocean. • There lay their only hope, and their thoughts were on possible wavs of getting across that stormy gap of ocean. Disappointment"lsland offered nothing in the way of timber from which a boat could be built. Eventually one of the castaways saw the possibilities of the native veronica. From its thin, but strong, t J irregular branches they fashioned a 1 basket-like framework, which when covered with canvas salvaged from the wreck became a craft of sorts, not unlike a Welsh coracle. j The first trip to Auckland Island ended in failure as the men found it almost impossible to walk through the dense growth of rata and could not find a depot. Later three men made another perilous journey to Auckland Island, found a depot and a boat, and brought their companions across to the depot. In November, eight months after the wreck, they were found by the New Zealand Government steamer . Hinemoa and taken to Bluff. 1 That is a somewhat bald summary of < the sufferings and rescue of the survivors | of the Dundonald. One of them was Mr 1 Charles Eyre, an able seaman, who lived ’

in Dulwich, London. Soon after his return to his home he told his story to the Rev. '■ H. Escott-Inman who wrote" the original' ’ book, first published in 1911 and now reprinted in a limited edition bv Capper* Press. ’ I know nothing of Mr Escott-Inman, but | . he would have made a good journalist. He j realised that here was a great storv. a ; dramatic story of misadventure, suffering, ■ disappointment and final triumph. It made any work of fiction look pale. Indeed, by comparison 'with the Dundonald survivors, ! Robinson Crusoe lived in the Garden of Eden. So Escott-Inman lets Charles Evre tell his own story, simply and forcefully, without a surplus word or an unnecessary adjective. The result is a magnificent narrative. Readers will find this a compelling book, difficult to put down. Even those of us without much knowledge of the sea, or of the harshness of desolate country in a bitter climate, will be able to feel something of the privations, the sufferings, the fears and despairs, and the ultimate joy of those courageous men cast awav on I the Auckland Islands. g When the Hinemoa found the Dundonald I survivors she was on her way to Campbell Island and- the Bounties and Antipodes Islands with scientific parties. Charles . Eyre volunteered as cook for the | Campbell Island party. One of the men with whom he shared" a tent was H. F. Ske.v, later to be director of the Magnetic Observatory in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. Another Christchurch link with the Dundonald story is the coracle (one of three made by the castaways) which is in the Canterbury Museum. All in a'll ‘‘The Castaways of Disappointment Island” was an excellent choice for a reprint. It is an absorbing and moving true story, well told. A chart of the Auckland Islands would have been an improvement, and it is a great pity that Capper Press did not see fit to include one.