TERRIBLE BUFFERING AT SEA.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1135, 1 February 1884, Page 3

TERRIBLE BUFFERING AT SEA.

A Baltimore paper of the 2ml December says } One of the most terrible stories on record of suffering at sea is that -old by a survivor of the ilLfated barque Freeman Clark, of Boston, which was burnt off the coast of Africa last summer. Thomas Hynes, one of; the crew; reached this, port yesterday fiom Cape Town, and his narrative of thesuffering experienced in the open boats for days, Within a few miles of land, with food and water not tire miles away, from which they were debai red by an impassable surf, while one by one they snoenmbed from exhaustion, is not equalled anywhere in fio* tion. This is the first news that has reached this country of the disaster beyond the bear announcement of the loss of the vessel. Hynes says that one day last May, while he was walking in the streets of Calcutta, having lately been discharged from his own vessel, he was invited by two strange men to take a drink. The next day he awoke in the forecastle of the Freeman Clark, Captain Williams, with a cargo of jute, bound for Boston. The Clark was 30 years old, and very leaky. Rough weather followed, and the crew had to keep at the pumps all the time. About July 12, after rounding the Cape, heavy weather came on, and the captain lost his reckoning. While in this dilemma, at 2 o’clock on the afternoon of July 15 a fire was discovered by the captain in the lazareUe. All hands were put to work at the pumps. They fought the fire until 9 p.tn., when the flames seize! upon the inflammable cargo and became beyond control. When the fire was first discovered they were 4’> miles off what was supposed to be Port Elizabeth light, but it proved to be Cape St. Frances light, the most dangerous and expo-ed part of the coast. At 9 o’clock the crew took to the boats, being then 10 miles off shore. In the captain’s boat were Mr Boyle, second mate, the steward, a Chinaman, three sailors, all the ships papers and instruments, and plenty qf provisions.. In the other boat were first mate Way mouth and the remainder of the crew. Bv some oversight no provisions but a.hag of ship biscuits were taken along in this boat, and no water. The boat being leaky, the biscuits became wet and unfit to cat. It was death to attempt to pass the breakers, so the two boats headed f r Port Elizabeth. It came on heavy weather and they parted, tMs being the last ever seen of the captain’s boat and its ersw. Having nothing to cat, the men became exhausted. The weather was fearfully cold, and it rained all the time. On July 18 the cook, a Biston man, died, and his body was at once thrown overboard. Another victim, a Norwegian, shortly followed. Several more days passed, and it was impossible for them to work longer. Those able bailed out. Just as desperatiou seized them Port Elizabeth light was sighted. A signal of an old jacket on an oar was recognised. Three fishing boats put off and picked them np. The steam tug James Searles towed them in. The castaways were kindly treated by the A merican Consul, who took care of them until they were able to travel. They say that when they last saw the captain’s boat it was headed for shore. A searching party went overland to look for them, but found nothing but a part of the wrecked sh p’s boat, which had been splintered by the breakers, and a few fragments only were left to tell the sad story of the unsuccessful effort to reach the shore. She must have been capsized and all on board'lost, as nothing has been heard of them since. Che survivors were afterwards sent to Cape Town, where passage was secured for them by different vessels. Hynes was put on board the Roma, which had already on board the crew of the wrecked steamer Dauntless, and brought to Baltimore. Hynes lives in Liverpool, and has a sister in New York, whom he is anxious to see before taking passage for Home. He tells a strange story of the origin of the fire. He says it was whispered among the crew that the captain started it, intending to destroy the ship, and thus get’he insurance. The fire broke out where he himself waA and was allowed to get a terrible heidway before it was reported or any effort made to check it. Death, however, now covers all traces of the crime, if crime it was.