WRECK OF THE STAR OF THE EVENING.

Grey River Argus, Volume III, Issue 180, 9 March 1867, Page 2

WRECK OF THE STAR OF THE EVENING.

(From the Hawlce's Bay Herald, March 2.) Thes.s. Star of the Evening left Napier roads on Tuesday, 12th inst, at noon, bound for Auckland. She had on board a crew of 18 rneh and 8 passengers — Messrs Smith, Worrall, and Sleipstine — 21 souls in all, and had a cargo of 1300 shoep. On leaving the roadstead the weather was fine and clear, but (O7ii afterwards, it became overcast — the wind being south-east and blowing a fresh ; breeze. AH 'sail was carried on the ship to • get her across the B.ay before dark, but as • Portland Island was approached the wind hauled more to the eastward, so that the square sail had to be taken, and the Island was not rounded until close on 8 p.m. A c htjc was then shaped to a position off the Bull rock, between Portland Island aud Table Cape. At 9.20, the rock being well , cleared, the ship was kept away due-north, and all sail again set. [This course, as Capt. Turner .explains in the account furuished by him to our coute'mporary, r being half a point easterly deviation, would take the vessel midchannel between the Ariel rocks and the Gable-end Foreland.] It was the mate's watch from 8 p.m. till 12, during the latter part of which time Captain Turner lay on the bridge to get a little sleep. At midnight the weather was thick and hazy, with showers of rain, and the wind increasing. The second mate then took watch, and he and the captain were both on deck until she struck. This took place at 2. 15 a.m. , the ship being under all sail and goiug 8- or 9 knots, jt was a thick squall at the time, and nothing was seen to give notice of the impending disaster — the shock of the vessel striking being the fir3t intimation given. A survivor says : — On going on deck I found we weieona dead lee shore, with all sail set, and a very heavy surf rolling down u.pon us. Our only chance lay in driving her up as far as we could get her. Accordingly, the sail was kept on the ship till it was seen she would go no further. Sail was taken in, but all this time the ship was bumping in the most frightful manner, so that we expected every minute to have some of the spars down about ourhea-.ls; while the cries of the affrighted sheep, added to the darkness of the night and the moaning of the increasing gale, made, such an accumulation of horrors as was sufficient to strive terror into the stoutest heart. Ten or twelve minutes after the vessel struck, the second engineer, who was on watch, and whose sense of duty would not allow him to forsake his post till the last extremity, was obliged to leave the engine room. The water had then risen in the stokehole, had got to the backs of the fires, and forced open the furnace doors; at the same tine the wooden floor was forced up by >the wat ;r, and the cranks were strikiug and splintering it at every revolution. Abo"t this tim i also the man had to leave the wheel, as he was twice washed away by the heavy seas which broke over the storn. ■ An attempt was also made to get the fore hatches on, but this was found to be impracticabl . In ; tbe hope, also, of easing the ship a 1 ttle, the captain gave orders t'» cut away the mainmast, and the carpeuter promptly came for .yard and cut it away,^ all hough the main deck was being hove up under his feet by the violent working of the ship. Soon after, thinking the ship was hung aft with her bows in deep water, and that she might slip off aid go down bodily, the chief officei went to take a cast of the lead: " He then heard tlni)lates cracking .amidships and reported thr same to the captain, who iuime : diately gave orders for all hands to go on the forecastle, as being the part most likely to last longest. ' It was fortunate that they did so, for they had not b^en there more than .ten minutes before the vessel parted amidships. The fore part forghift a head, left the after part on , the outer reef, with tie v ne} standing and the rnizen set. The forepart of the ship was, up to this time, comparatively free from water; the iron bulkhead between the fore aud main hold remaining unbroken ; but soon af.ter the ship broke in two, it was forced in by the . heavy seas which struck it. The. fore hold then filling, the vessel gave a heavy lurch and then sauk, with her rail awash; When , she sank, the captain sung put for all to foli low him up the fore stayi" Many did so, whilst others tried aud failed ; amongstthese were the chief engineer, carpeuter-, steward, cook, chief officer, ■ .-two seamen, and three ■ passengers. Some of them tried to climb the fore stay but could not. The chief officer ; did not attempt it, he having a life-buoy to take care of as being the best thing to cany a line ashore. He lashed himseif, together with Mr Sleipstine (a passenger) and one of 1 the seaman, to the fish davit. ■ ; Our position at this time was one of great and deep' anxiety wasielt as to what •-.^a^light would reveal. Clinging to part of .im^^elj and that sunk so low that, whilst j&tndi|s£f on it, the water broke over our Aeana^liplding on with might and main tp |-)revetiS!being swept overboard, cold aud wet r^we'had>liiit little hojm of reaching the land,

Still, as it turned out, we had cause to be thankful that we struck with a falling tide, as had the tide been* rising, I am afraid \Qvy .few would have escaped 'to tell the tale of this sad disaster. At last daylight came, and we then per : eeived that we were about a cable's length froni the rocks, and that it was .about dead low water, Another reef extended on our right at an angle with the coast line, and was about the same distance off aa the reef ahead of the ship, No time was lost, but, a line having been made out of the running gear, the best swimmer on board— W, Hammond, I A .8.- -then volunteered to carry it ashore. With the life buoy, and assisted by another seaman, named James Weaver, the line was ioarried to the rocks. Our hopes of getting all hauds ashore were raised by this success to the highest pitch., but were soon doomed to disappointment, as, on hauling in the line, we found that it had been cut by the rocks. Still we were not disheartened ; and Hammond bravely swam off to the ship again with the life buoy. Another Hue was made fast, which there is little doubt he could have carried ashore alright if he had not made the mistake of trying to take Mr T. Smith (passenger) ashore 'also in the life buoy, Mr Smith was quite helpless in the water- and j hung motionless in the life buoy; Haininond was unable, in consequence, to stem; the cur-r rent, and they were swept among some detached rocks. Hammond had then to let go. and strike out for tlie shore- u to save his own life, and we hauled Mr SmitJi back again to the ship. " One of the seaman, Walter Hooper, then attempted to swim ashore. The poor fellow reached well into the rocks, and , was .tjh'en taken down by the strong nnderVtow that prevailed, The poor fellow leaves aWife and three children to mourn his tintimely end. As neither Hammond nor Weaver, who were ashore, felt equal to swimming off to the ship .again, the chief officer took the lifebuoy and line, and tried to carry them ashore, but not beiug a powerful swimmer he was unable to contend with the strong uuder.tow, and was three times carried amongst btoken rocks and had- to be hauled back bo the ship — the last time in quite an exhausted condition. One of the. firemen, John Hunt, then tried with no better success. The tide was now fast rising and -the gale gathering strength; and it became evident that each would have to take his choice of trying to swim ashore or staying on the wreck . . TJbie captain and chief officer, after strongly, impressing upon those that could not swim that they should leave the wreck as soon as possible, and not take the water without something to support them, each took a piece of plank and jumped overboard, and got ashore safe. The chief officer went first, followed by the second mate and captain, the latter having a very narrow escape. Then one of the firemen came ashore on part of the house, and the second engineer on another part; and they were followed by a little boy only 18 years of age, but who is an excellent swimmer. " These all got ashore safe ; but two passen-. gers, Messrs Worrell aiid Sleipstine, the steward and the cook, none of whom could swim and who jumped overboard without anything to support them, wore all drowned a short distance from the ship. There were then remaining on the wreck the chief eiigineir, Mr Roliason ; a firen.an, J. M'Dormott; and two seamen, Wood and Morgan. These werfi in the foreyard The carpenter, A. Johnson ; and Mr Smith, passenger, were on ih j forecastle, holding on to the forestay. As the tide rose a id the surf increased, poor Mr Smith was swept away and drowned. The carpenter would soon have followed had not the people on the foreyard lowered him . down a line, which he had strength left to put round himself, and he was then hauled up to the yard. . i As soon as.w3 landed, we found shelter at a Maori settlement, and picked up a 'few pieces of clothing, as most of us laude.l nakjsd, . although we had some trouble to gi t bheso on; account of the Maori law which allows a man to keep what he finds on his land. A's soon as possible a messenger was sent to Captain G. E. Read, of Turanganui, Acquainting him ] with the 'disaster, and asking for hues and assistance to get the me;i off the mast. The appeal was not made in. vain. That afternoon Mr Gilmoiir, Mr Bradley (chief clerk to C iptain Read), Mr Campbell, R.AL, Captain Ttinuhsrof the cutter Agnes, accompanied by his men, arrived with lines, clothe?, and medical comforts, acdj with willing heart's and hands to' do all they could to save the poor fellows on the wreck who were in such imminent peril. They were also accompanied by a native named Diamond, who is employed by the surveyors at Poverty Bay, but who belongs to the Eiist Cape. This riiau volun : teered to try and carry a line to the ship through the surf. Cm Wednesday evening the attempt was made, and it was attended with a measure of success 1 Unfortunately after the ineii had hold of the line, it got foul of detached rocks so as lo be of no use ; and Diamond having got somewhat hurt by the mainmast, which -was hanging alongside, was not able to render any more assistance. As no one but a man thoroughly accustomed to water durst venture to breast the teriffic surf rolling in, we were obliged t«v leave the poor men in their perilous position — exposed to all the fury of the gale and the biting rain which accompanied it, almost without clothing and entirely without food or water. ! TOn Thursday morning we were up at daylight: but it was at once seen that we could do nothing to Ijelp the poor fellows." Some of us entered the water to get a nearer view |of them, but were nearly swept away. We could see that they were endeavoring to cut away the sails from the yards, which were flapping .about, and jerking the mast and yards. All day on Thursday the gale raged -—it being then at its height— and we could do nothing to alleviate the sufferings of our shipmates. We assembled on the taarh, but having no one to carry the line out against such a surf as was then running, we were obliged to leave it, although it was heartrending to do so. The poor fellows were watching our every " movement with eager eyes, always expecting we were going to do something either to save their lives or make their position more bearable; On Thursday at midnight the gale Woke ; and by daylight on Friday the surf had gone down considerably, giving us great hopes that at last we should be able to do something for oiir uufortunate shipmates, if they were not already past human help. By five o'clock we assembled on thebeach, andgot lines stretched ready for use, life buoys, &c. , at hand. We .then waded on to the outer rocks, and as no native could be got to swim off, Hammond and Weaver again bravely volunteered to do so. Haying stripped and taken the line, they jumped in, and by God's, blessing, were enabled to reach the bowsT: They then climbed xip the forestay, and one of them getting on the rigging, called put to us to bend on one of the life b_oat's floats, which is made of canvas aud fili«d\wth oprk, and is about 12 feet long. We (u3&go, and it was hauled out to the ship ; one cfe the men being placed on it he was quickly haVled on shore by his shipmates, assisted byj some Maories. The float wa% tben hauled back again to the ship and another one hauflt^shore ; and so on till we had them all j^Hkunigst us. We then made the hiUs rinj^^^^fc^ cheer we gave at this' happy in^^^^^^^f .their sufferings and our anxiet^^^^^^^K The poor fellows were^^^^^^^K a sad condition, They had bee^^^^^^k^ng on to the wreck,; and OVw^^^^^^^^bw kind ; their sufferings from^^^^^^^^^M sleep had also been very £P^^^^^^^^^^| Mir 1 foot were found to ' J^, l>^^^^^^^^^^| much so that they CO^^P^^^^^^^^H

assis'aice. On the Thursday night the c?rpenter was delirious ; he seemingly labored under the delusion-' that the vessel was anchored eff Napier? as he kept saying— " Why does not the pilot come off with the boat ?"' We got them up to the whare, and, after they had something to eat and drink and a little sleep, they were .ible to walk down to the river and bathe their swollen limb 3. Those of us who were able then walked over to Povorty Bay, where we received a hearty welcome ..from Capt. Read, MrEspio, Messrs Cadle and Blair, arid other gentlemen, whose kindness to us will never be forgotten, . although it may not be in our power to repay them for it, The sick men were brought in on Saturday, and received every attention, and a sum of LSO was subscribed, half of which was voted to relieve the widows of Eltham and Hooper. Captain Turner, the officers and engineer came on to Napier in the Donald M'Lean, and the rest of, the survivors were to go on to Auokland in theTawera, Nothing was saved from the ship, either ship's property or- the private effects of captain or crew, The chronometer and one of tlie compasses were washed ashore, but they were of course useless, frqin the effects of salt water, The beaoh for 'miles- Was strewed with debris of the wreck, and the sheep were to be seen lying dead in hundreds j in fact, only about 80 or 100 remain alive. .- Four of the bodies of those lost were washed up befoi'9 we left Turanganui, but they were so disfigured by contact with the rooks that their nearest relatives would fail to. recoguisG theiii. The bodies were buried near ibb where they were picked up. Lisfc of Saved, r-A, C. Turner, master; E. LeightOn, mate; J. Tutton, 2nd mate? D.Robinson,, chief engineer-; J. Barker, 2nd engineer ; A, Johnstone, carpenter ; W. Hanunond, J. Weaver, D, Wood, N. Morgan, able seamen ; J, Williams, lamptrimmer ; C. P-hilpot, : cabin boy ; J, Hunt, P, M -Dermoj;,, 0. Dawson, firemen. . ' List of Drowned.- Mr Smith, v Mf Worrell, aud Mr Sleipstine, passengers ; W, Eltham, steward ; J. Legerwood, cpok ; W, Hooper, A.B.