A GREAT ADVENTURE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 27 December 1924, Page 16

A GREAT ADVENTURE.

. H —: - ... WRECK OF THE ISABELLA LIFE ON THE FALKLAND ISLAND. HUNTING GROUND OF WHALERS. Much of V. F. Boyson’s book, “The Falkland Islands” is devoted to the history of the island from discovery up to.the battle of 1914. . The writer, declares the Melbourne Age, has found in this history a series of .thrilling romantic adventures. Account of the island is also given with detail, and notes on the natural history are furnished by Rupert Valentin.. The whole of the description and story of the island is of. [interest, but, in this respect, apart from the battle of, the Great War, no section of this book surpasses the account of the visit of the brig Nanina in the year 1813, and the adventures of its crew; The neglected island abandoned by the nations which had almost; fought to • get possession of them, the writer tells, became at the start of the nineteenth century the hunting ground of whalers and sealers. It was during these years that on some of the smaller i stands west and south-west, of / the group was • played a drama of shipwreck, treabhery, and marooning which would need a Stevenson or a Conrad to do it justice. A full relation of it is found in the narrative of the most important—though not the most strik-: ing—figure of the piece, a gentle enough, kindly, somewhat , plaintive New England sealing captain. Captain Charles .. H. Barnard, inu the brig Nanina, of New York, visited the Falkland Island for seal skins, arrived on 7th September, 1812, and anchored in Hooker’s Harbour; New' Island. Besides his seamen he had with him his father, and one .or two ship masters, temporarily, out of employment owing to America’s. strained relations with England and France./ At first .they, went sealing at the Jasons. Soon after midsummer, at the, beginning of January, the Hope of, New York called at New Island and informed Bafnard that the United States had declared war against Great Britain. So Barnard recalled his men from Jasons; whither they Had gone in the shallop Young Nanina, and the Americans settled down for a stay of some, months in Barnard’s haven on/the west of West Falkland. In April they were anchored in Fox Bay, when they saw smoke rising from Eagle Island, one of the Ariican islands, which lie low and dark and desolate at the southeast and separated from East Falkland by . Jason. Strait. Barnard ' accordingly sailed/thither, and on approaching the island he saw ’ eight or ten persons, and hoisted the American colours to cheer them. CASTAWAYS ON THE FALK- />.; /;/;,.■■ : . LANDS! V;..;" ■;/ - ; . There i were nearly fifty people on the island; including half a dozen women and several .children. T/liese castaways were overjoyed to see Barnard and his companions, and one lady wept/ ' But, Bafnard / discovered!! afterwards, - Mrs/ Durie’s /sensibility was extreme; she frequently dissolved in tears; she hud", nevertheless what [Barnard defines as ‘ ‘the sympathising heart which distinguishes the tigress.” / Winter was coming on;, the wretched people had been, on the island nearly two months. Their ship, the Isabella, bound from New !South Wale's to London, had [ been wrecked oh the night of 9th February/ With the/cxbfcise of courage, and discipline ihe ~ ship need hot have:/been wrecked., ? /Her captain, George. Higton, appears to have . been incapable when sober, and merbly 'truculent when druhk. The only capable member of the party-would seem to have been two passengers, Captain Brooks and Lieutenant London, who,’ with; four seamen, had set forth in the longboat to bring relief from South America. Captain Barnard was further ,introduced to Captain Robert Durie. of the .73rd Regiment, in coriimand of fourteen marines ; he may, be adequately described/as Mrs/ Durie’s husband. There were also among the shipwrecked, General Holt, ‘ ‘formerly of the Irish patriots, ” And still on principle antagonistic to all existing authority. The “wicked Baronet” of fiction .was not wanting, only he was knight. He was the sbri of a Dublin brewer; in appearance he was not knightly; so when in Dublin he approached a Quaker heiress to induce her to become Lady Brown Hays she declined the honour. He abducted her; she was rescued ; Hays/discovered abduction was a hanging matter, though his death sentence -was commuted to transportation/for life. At Botany Bay Hays/became a notorious nuisance; still he''’rendered Some services' to the Governor. ?..nd obtained a pardon. Now he had sailed to Botany Bay in a con-; viet ship commanded by Captain Brooks,'who had put him in irons for insubordination, so that when Hays dis* covered Brooks as a fellow passenger oil -board the Isabella he sought Opportunities for revenge; . He could’ not do much, even with Higton as his boon companion, until the: Isabella;/struck, when he relieved hig feeliwrs somewhat by negativing all Brooks’s“effprts first to.- prevent the -wreck, and afterwards to aid his fellow sufferers. A; secondary villian was Mattinson dismissed iro'm the British -Navy-, who had come aboard at Port Jacksoii- as a stowaway. ; ■ NOTORIOUS HAYS.'

Captain Barnard’s first thought: was of succour and relief.' ; Mrs'. Durie- —in tears—insisted bn being taken, on boara tlie Nanina with her 'children immediately. Barnard consented, and .undertook to cbiivey the party to some South American port. An Agreement for payment was drawn up, but before it was signed Barnard to»d the castaways of the war between England and America, adding that he hoped that this would make no difference t to the friendly relations of the castaways and the crew: All acquiesced in this but Hays. It Was impossible to sail at once, for- a gale blew up to 3rd June. An addition of so large a party made it necessary to lay in a stock of provisions for the voyage. Accordingly, while the Nanina was at New Island, Barnard, with' four seamen, went to Beaver Island pig hunting. When they 1 returned, brig, crew and passengers had vanished.

Instigated by Hays, on the pretext that Barnard meant to run into a North American port, where they would all be made prisoners of war, the British overpowered the few Americans and went off with the brig. On the entreaties of Barnard’s father, the Nanina was hove to off Beaver Island, and two guns wee fired hs a signal to him and his companions; They were on the other side of the island, and the English refused to allow a’ party to land and bring them off. As the Nanina came near Eagle Island he>• people were amazed to find the British brig Nancy, for Brooks and his companions had reached Buenos Ayres in the longboat, and the brig had.sailed to their relief. Lieutenant W. D. Aranda, commander of

the Nancy, boarded and ‘-‘captured’ ’ the Nanina, tliougn it appears that Hays, Mattinson, Captain and Mrs! Darie, all claimed the/Honour,-(and shared in plundering Barnard’s state room. According /to the/ifafratiyq / tlie fcreatment;,;<jf ; the -Yankees; by ish was “infamous.” What hurtßaigi^ ard more than anything was tHAt//ih» Nanina, after reaching RioJaheirb/ was sent by. the -British admiralt’o London, and declared a prize— “Wresting from an uhf ortiiiuite, man his vessel while'in the act;of> saving lhanyof their subjects froni- actuaf; starvation/”. / ‘' The plight of Barnard and his companions wa s wretched. Terrorised by the seaman Ansell, of the Isabella ' ibhe men deserted Barnard, even' talking away his dog. A short while after tfiev returned repentanj;, and marooned Ansell on another island. Later, they retched him off, and he, proved truly penitent, They lived on what s)iej could catch—-seals affording meat’ aid hght,. fuel and clotl.ing .Their/detelite f condyearof abandonment was nearly half through when two British whalers —the Indispensable/ of London, Willmm Buckle, master, and the Astestood m tor New Island, saw their signals and rescued - them.' ( Captain Bqckle explaining that/he a letteer from an English- admithl/M Rto, asking, him to look out fqf Itheni. the jEnghsh/ whalers assured'/Barnard that the treatment of /the/ KabbWs people, was reprobated bf/England in spi.o of H,„ Admiral’s 42 *“; r d" tiiewa.iii.ndrwwi left behind. A year or ttto liter Barnard touched •= at the group /again this ■JS? taking off an English sailor left behind by his ship. ;