THE SHIP BLUE JACKET.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1083, 14 September 1869, Page 3

THE SHIP BLUE JACKET.

Intelligence was received at Lloyd's on July 2 that the ship Antonio Vincent arrived at the Falkland Islands on the 3rd April, with a boat's crew belonging to the ship Blue Jacket, bound from Lyttleton, New Zealand, to London, which was bnrnt at sea on March 9. One account says that the crew consisted of eight men, three having died, and another, that four had died in the boat and three in the Antonio Vincent. It is also stated that there was £10,000 or £15,000 in gold in the boat. The boat was for one day in company with a yacht in charge of the master, White, and one lifeboat, in charge of the second mate, after which they parted company. From these details it is believed that it is the third mate's boat which has been picked up. According to the captain's report, there were 31 men in the two missing lifeboats. The Standard of July 8 published the following letter from one of the survivors of the above melancholy loss : — Fort Stanley, Falkland Islands, April 29, 1869. My dear mother, — With many, many ; thanks to the Almighty Grod, I write the ' welcome news that I am still spared to live a few days longer in this world. You will, no doubt, before you receive this letter have heard of the sad fate of. the poor old Blue Jacket. * * * * After detailing the circumstances of the fire^and the; leaving of the ship, he, continues :-«~We

(that is the three > boats) Icept to^etKe? aU • night by means of lanterns, wMcK we held up every nbw and then. .Next morning the other. tw!o boats were ; itlie, breeze was still incMsmgV and 'mVtWd! hours' time we picked them up,ti , We - passed the usual compliments. :.^as { going on well. Mr. Williams did not' make any sign to come into his boat again, so when the captain gave us the ; course %o the Falkland Islands we went on to see if ' we ipovld pick the other boat upi Beforewe:could see her the yacht was out of sights When we came up to the .second mate's; boat we both lowered our sails and hoye. to, for the yacht to get up to us again. While we were waiting we had dinner, which consisted of about a quarter .of it pound of preserved meat, a very few t)its f of biscuit (which had got spoilt witlr Salt water coming into the boat), and not quite two gills of water. .We had a. pretty, good supply of provisions and ,water v but we knew not how long ysre would, have to be in the boat before we were picked up or reached land. We waited there some time, but no yaclrt wks* to be seen, and we were losing the fair wind, so we asked Mr. Bell if he was going to wait any longer? He said, " No." With that answer we hoisted our sail and started, but up to the time we lost .. sight of him he had not moved. We still went on, but during the night the wind shifted round right dead against us, so we steered for the main land, as it was impossible for us to reach the islands. -We. never saw either of the boats after that. There were 15 of us in one boat, there were 27. adults and seven cnildren in the, yacht, and the rest with Mr. Bell, second ' mate. I have no doubt father would recollect the brown dog tliat Mr. — — had. It, was in our boat. Six days after we left the ship we killed it, drank the blood and ate the flesh. Six days after that was the : commencement of the horrors of a cask away crew. One of the boys put of two , died through drinking salt water. Wei managed to keep it from him during the daytime, but at night he would get it. He was but of his mind about 11 hours before he died. We buried the poor lad as well as we could under the circumstances. We read the burial service for the dead at sea, but we had nothing to sink him with. It was a painful task, but it was the will of God. We prayed to the Almighty in that boat with more earnestness than any of us had ever done before. We could see death staring us in the face. Day after day no land, no vessel. Five days after: the boy died we lost the carpenter and a seaman. The latter poor fellow died from , utter debility and old age. The carpenter, who was a fine tall man, over 6 feet, died from drinking salt water. They were both Roman Catholics. The car-' penter has left a wife, with four or five children to mourn their loss. Two days after another man died raving mad, through salt water ; he w,as the healthiestlooking man in the boat. There were two others (the sailmaker and one seaman) '• out of their mind. We expected they would be going off at any moment. Next day nothing in sight; we thought the Almighty had brought us there to breathev our last; we had breakfast, which was. one sardine, some biscuit that we had, to squeeze to get the salt water out, and about two tablespoonfuls of water. I forgot to tell you that, about ten days after leaving the ship, our feet became so. painful with frostbite that we had to : cut our boots off, the pain was so exerueiat-, ing. For my part, I was inclined to drink salt water to put an end to my life, -for what with the hunger, the thirst, and the pain in my feet I nearly went mad, mv fact, one afternoon for a few hours I was out of my mmd, they all said that they thought tshould go off. After we hadhad breakfast, the provisions we had left, was a box of sardines, plenty. of spoilt bread, and about; one gallon of water. There was a light breeze, and a little after 12 o'clock one of the men shouted out "Sail oh 1" We all for the moment forgot our weakness and pain, and jumped up, and there was a barque bearing down upon us ; we were soon alongside of her, and were, hauled up the side, for we were as helpless as children. I forgot to tell you that we had saved three boxes of gold from the ship, value £10,000. When the captain of the vessel found we had gold he got in a frightful rage. He put the boatswain in irons and two seamen also, and chained them down — men that were not able to lift a pound weight; and several times he threatened to take the boatswain's life. We just got sufficient food to keep us alive, and that was all. Well, these islands were the nearest place. The Almiglity blest us with a fair wind. We arrived' , here on the Sunday. The captain and a ; passenger he had with him went on shore and reported that he had picked up some, wrecked sailors, and from what he cbuld J make out we had murdered every one on board and then set fire to the ship and taken the gold and left her. When the doctor came on board he ordered the irons to be taken off and gave us plenty of wine. Next day (Monday) we were all brought on shore and put into houses. Before I go further I must tell you that three more died on board the barque, leaving eight of us to tell the tale. Five of tae men's feet had got nearly well ; but the engineer, the boy, and myself, were the worst cases. We three are in a house by ourselves, the engineer chiefly from bad sores and weakness, the boy suffers with the frostbite in his feet, he has lost each of his little toes. I am suffering from one foot, but I am sorry to say that all my toes have rotted off. Had we not had a clever doctor I should have lost my foot altogether. We. have an old pensioned soldier to attend, to us, and a more suitable person we- could.-»-not have had. We have every, attention and kindness paid us. Those that were strong enough were "examined the "next day. It took three days to examine three men. Then they heard what the captain and his chief mate had to say. The next day our three men were cross-examined, and proved themselves to be innocent. The captain got into such a rage, because he could not bring it in against us, that he nearly committed himself. If he had not have cleared out quickly with his vessel, the people in the place would have killed him when they knew we were innocent. They examined the rest of us afterwards. An unfortunate case of divorce, associated with the name of the Prince of Wales, has been occasioning some amount of public scandal. The proceedings were instituted by Sir Charles Mordant, in order to annul his marriage from his wife,. The plaintiff proposed to include, the Prince's name among the co-respondent^, on account of revelations made by the lady while in a state of temporary insanity. The Prince has assured the plaintiff upon his honor that there was no. pretext for the statements. The Prime Minister sent for the plaintiff and told him the course he contemplated tadopti ing was regarded by the Queen as being unfriendly to royalty. Sir Charles was thereupon induced to abandon his determination. ; : : : ,s v