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Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 4154, 6 December 1870, Page 3

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By the arrival of the schooner 'Kauri,' Captain T. Shepherd, from Levuka, on November 17, we have received from, our own correspondent the following account of the total wreck of the fine schooner Albatross, Captain Braund, on the island of Vanua Balavu. It will be in the remembrance of our readers that the ' Albatross' left here some three months back with the Earl of Pembroke on a cruise among the islands of the South Seas. After leaving Rarotonga, the ' Albatross* sailed for Samoa, where she arrived safely, and it was while going from that place to Levuka that the 'Albatross' was unfortunately wrecked. The following s our correspondent's account of the accident: " Without preface or introduction I will plunge in medias res. The shipwrecked crew of the ' Albatross,' including its noble owner, arrived here from Wairiki (Taviuni) on November 6, in the barque 'Duke of Edinburgh,' which vessel picked them up at sea in their boats. The 'Albatross' was from Samoa (Navigators) bound for Levuka. Captain Braund says: — 'After sighting Vanuaßalavu, andnot liking the look of the weather, 1 stood off till it should clear. On the night of the 21st, the vessel strnok on a reef, which surrounds Nnkus Ambanga Island, lat. 16 20 S., long. 179*30 W., approximate. I must therefore have been carried to .the westward by a strong current. It was 10 o'clock at night when we struck. She began to bump heavily, and drove over the reef into comparatively still water inside, and nowJies with, her port.! side smashed, but otherwise uninjured.' The ; wreck sold for £54. The ,' Merlin' left this morning^ ''bpund for the New Hebrides, and will'of ! course visit the scene of the wreck, andiprobably get the, bulk of the unconsidered Uwfles without the inconvenient preliminary , of bidding at auctiohr The shipwrecked s party were nine days on the ; island, partly, detained byihad weather, and partly inconsequence of the latest Admiralty Directors warning survivors from landing oh any of the islands in ; the neighbourhood: they waited for, moonlight, nights to sail through the group after dark.' Had they known that Captain JEfill" is establishing a plantation on ißambi, tljey might have been, housed safely the next day, as that island was in 'sight from the ship. They suffered little or no privations but | lost all clothes, a collection of objects of natural history, and, in faot, ; everything but the necessaries" of life* At the end of the ninth day made for Taviuni, and were about to camp on Goat Island in Somasoma Strait, when they luckily saw the masts of the •Duke of Edinburgh' lying at Wairifei. The Earl seems in capital health and spirits, and has endeared himself to' the settlers here by his affable imaMeraf and absence \".6i[ all pride." Themate/and crewarrived in Auckland by the 'Kauri,'' but the Earl, r doctor, steward, and Captain Braund k waited for the steamer ' Auckland.'