TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF A CREW.

Evening Star, Issue 10399, 21 August 1897, Page 2

TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS OF A CREW.

Probably one of the most remarkable tales of shipwreck and adventure narrated within recent years was that told on July 9 to Reuter’s representative at Liverpool -by Mrs Andrew Christie, widow of Captain Christie, of the wrecked ship Traveller. Mrs Christie, who belonged to Liverpool, underwent perils and hardships in company with the other survivors of the crew that were almost beyond human endurance.. From her. statement it appears that the ship Traveller with a cargo of sugar was going from Javs to Delaware Breakwater, and almost as soon as the vessel left fever of the usual Java type broke out, and this spread day after day until everyone on board the ship was affected with the malady, including Mrs Christie herself and even her baby boy, about eleven months old. Death after death took place, and the victims were one after another buried at sea. One of the men, a Dutchman, while delirious with the fever, jumped into the sea and ended his life. The chief officer.of the ship died on December 14, and on the 28th Mrs Christie’s husband succumbed, This cast a terrible gloom over the ship. Some of the men gained a little strength, but others died, until the death roll at last amounted to eleven. This left ten men to man the ship, with the second mate, Mr Ritch, a Liverpool man, in- charge. Mr Ritch decided to make for Mauritius to obtain assistance. Later on, at a time when he had but two men and himself to work the ship, he approached Rodrigues Island. With wonderful skill they brought up their • ship off the island, and then dropped anchor. They thought that they could get assistance and medicine here, and that all danger waa passed. The treatment they received, however, Mrs Christie described as the most remarkable and inhuman, and was rendered doubly so in view of the prostrate condition of the survivors. Rodrigues Island is inhabited mostly' by French Creoles. The Governor and doctor, however, are white, and although French, could speak English. The pilot of the place came off in his boat, but when he heard of the sickness, which was explained to him as the usual Java kind, he would not board the Traveller, but returned to the. shore, and the report was spread that the vessel had yellow fever on board. The helpless people waited hour after hour for assistance, but none came, and, fearing that their vessel would go ashore any minute, Mr Ritch decided to take his crew on shore. A boat was launched, and Mr Ritch and the two convalescent seamen lowered Mrs Christie, her baby, and the other sick members of the crew into it. As they approached tho shore the Governor and a number of others rushed down to the water’s edge and threatened to shoot the shipwrecked people if they landed. Mr Ritch asked them if they were Christians to treat people in such a manner. - His men, he said, had not the strength to pull back to the ship, and if they got there they would all very likely be drowned. Mr Ritch asked them to give him assistance to take his vessel out of .its dangerous position, and to give succor and medicine for his sick crew. These appeals met with no response, and for fear of being fired on the poor people had to row back to their ship. Here they arrived more dead than alive, and only got on board the Traveller again with the utmost difficulty. The last of their number had scarcely quitted the small boat when it was carried away and lost. No assistance waa sent to the ship either in the shape of a. doctor or of hands to man the vessel, and that night the Traveller was carried on to tho reefs and wrecked. Fortnnately she did not go to pieces then, or every soul on boardi would have been in all probability lost. Finding that something must now be done, the Rodrigues people sent a boat next morning with the pilot, and this boat took off Mrs Christie and her child. Mr Ritch launched the ship’s lifeboat, but as bis crew had not strength to man it some blacks were sent from the shore. All of the shipwrecked people were taken to a sand island where there were no inhabitants, and were kept there for twenty-two days. They lived in huts made of leaves, and for about three weeks had nothing but leaves to lie down on. So fearful were the Rodrigues people of contaotwith the shipwrecked crewthat the food they sent was conveyed from one small boat to another and then put on the beach. Some blacks, however, were sent to the island to cook for the unfortunate _people. The doctor came off in about a fortnight, but remained in the small boat many yards from the beach, and examined the shipwrecked crew through a pair of binocular glasses. The morning after the wreck, as Mr Ritch and bis companions were being conveyed to tho island, one of them, a Scotchman, died, and tho authorities made the blacks take him back to where the ship was ashore to bury him in the sea. Another sailor named Pilgrim died on the sand island, and Mr Rich had himself to dig a hole and bury the body. On the twentysecond day it became patent to those at Rodrigues Island that, as the monsoon was setting in, and it was likely that the island would be covered by the sea, its occupants were in great danger. They were therefore moved to Rodrigues, but their number had now been reduced to eight of the crew and Mrs Christie and her child. On Rodrigues Island they remained two months, and during that time were well treated. After this they went to Mauritius, and there met with all possible attention and kindness. Six of the crew were brought from Mauritius in the Warwick Castle, as well as Mrs Christie and her baby. The Rodrjgues islanders allowed the cargo salved to be landed, and therefore their aversion to the shipwrecked people could not be explained. Captain Christie belonged to Walls, Shetland, and was thirty-seven years of age. It is said that, had any assistance been given, the Traveller would have been- saved. The underwriters have made representations in the matter to the Home Government.

The finest and largest collection of Bibles in the world is said to be that at the Bible House of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in Queen Victoria street, London. Mrs Newboy: “For every ton of lead fired only one man is killed.” Mrs Oldboy : “ What a waste of lead.”

Excessive tea-drinking is assigned as the chief cause of the high rate of insanity in Donegal, and the theory would seem to be strengthened by the fact that there are three female lunatics to one male in the asylums. The Jubilee week was the occasion for the first time of Her Majesty departing from the original idea of the Triplet Bounty, It has been a mistaken idea that the birth of triplets entitled the parents to the £3 bounty, for the money is only paid when the parents are in poor circumstances, and never till the present occasion has it been paid if all three children had not survived The wife of a Midland Bailwav fireman named Holmes gave birth to triplets on the 11th June, but they were all still-born. Dr Hunter, who attended Mrs Holmes, applied to the Pnvy Purse Office for the bountyf but was informed that as the children had died the case did not come within the bounty, but on the doctor’s further representation ~ e Pnvy Purse was ordered. to give Mrs Holmes £2 “without prejudice,” as the lawyers say. Myers s antiseptic tooth wash; strongly recommended cleansing; artificial palates, keeping teeth good coloi; price 2s, all chemists ; once used will be appreciated.—[A nvr ]