HORRIBLE SUFFERINGS AT SEA. 107 DAYS ON A WRECK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 272, 17 November 1871, Page 2

HORRIBLE SUFFERINGS AT SEA. 107 DAYS ON A WRECK.

r One of the most distressing stories of ship-wreck and horrible suffering at sea which has recently been heard of was brought to light by the steamer Moses Taylor on her last downward voyage from San Francisco to Honolulu with the New Zealand mails. We (Southern Cross) are indebted to Mr. A. G. Horton, of Timaru, who rwas a passenger •by ;the Moses Taylor at the time of the rescue of the captain of the water-logged vessel, for the following particulars 6i ! the sad' event, and the terrible sufferings and death of those or. b ( oard :— „.,,„, On themornirig of Thursday,' the' 18th of October, when about 500 miles from Honolulu, there, could .-he/ seen from the deck of the steamer Moses Taylor, a vessel apparently bearing down for the steamer, anJ this fact caused no little speculation among the passengers as to the precise object of the ship in wishing to communicate with the steamer. As the vessel approached nearer, it was soon seen that she was a brig with only one mast, an (] that the sea was washing clean over her, and,* moreover, that signals of distress For remainder of news sic fourth page.

were flying at the foremast. Of course, ,under such circumstances, a boat, was at once placed in . readiness for the * pnrpose of -going on: board .to render assistance. The brig was running before the wind, and as she approached still nearer, every grass 1 was brought into^ use; but no sign of life on board could, be discovered. . She was* fancier a fbretopsailj reefed, and had her- jib set, as well as a piece of the jforesail, which: was blowing" about. A sort of' canvas house was likewise observed, ! er/e;tW;;crW lived for "some* time, in the maintop. This was the . appearance of. the vessel when ivnthin a few hundred .yards of the steamer. A boat. was' s.oJjWowered, manned by five (sailors and nHecond officer of the Moses -Taylor, -wheJ^rT at once proceeded alongside.the brig at the bows, and two of the men scrambled "on board and ran up the riggiDg to the foretop. There they found no one—^hot seven ia dead body— and could not discover the name of the vessel. This : fact they shouted to the men in the boat, when a human J figure _. was seen to creep outtpf some canvass , on .the . deck of the JFc^KastJe,. and <was. heard to exclaim, ""Hod' Almighty I Am I. saved?" He -was ,too weak to. stand or walk, and was .afronce assisted; into the boat. The men searched tbe'forwaTd ' pairt of the ship, where the sea wastibt breaking over, but could -find.' no TonS 'else, "and on being interrogated, the rescued man said he was theonly~survivor 'put of twelve , persorjs, ; and that the brig bad been waterlogged for 107 days. .He begged hard for a drink 6f water when in' the boat, but this was very properly denied h^im,; and when he was received bn.board the Moses Taylor ha.was at once, placed J n-tn elands of the doctor. After the^second day, when the < man had sufficiently-recovered to be able to sit -up and talk, he related one of the most melabcholy and distressing stories of ;prr*atioh and suffering pr^bajjly ever told ' j&y/^iurnan tongue, some' JoTr? the facts of which can scarcely be published. The particulars he gave were, in substance^ ns 'follows:- 1 -- '„.;'..

-••'! The American brig Shelehoff, 250 tons, left San Francisco for Callao on the 22nd of June, with a cargo- of lumber, besides a, small quantity of rice and starch, in charge of the rescued rriaD, Captain tHTdpken, a'Grerraan, of about thirty-five "years qf age,, and a crew of seven men, ', and four passengers: — making a total of twelve souls 'in all on board. All' went weir'untirthjij/evening of y the 3rd -July, when' they' were., caught in a cyclone, in lat. 16 N., and long. 117 W.. The captain states that, he went on deck about 11 o'clock, arid orclered more sail to be taken in, but before" the order could be executed heavy seas ; . washed over, the brig, and they were compelled to cut away the mainmast. On leaving San Francisco the brig 1 had a very heavy deck cargo of lumbe^r, and some o£ this was thrown overboard soon as the cyclone struck her, but before much could be done the possengers\ f and' crew' were compelled to take to -the: rigging. They had not beeu in the fore tpp,;m any minutes when a tremendous sea swept over the brig, carrying away\the bulwarks, sweeping overboard the remaining lumber, the boat, arid/ in' fact, everything on deck. When the sea ,mpder,ated a little it ; was found that the brig was full of water, and that she had a large hole in her stern. The captain, who appears to have been a very thoughtful and strong-minded men, called all on board around him, and after explaining to them his position, took away idLtheir knives and threw them overboard. To each man he gave a few pieces of biscuit out of two or three pounds that had been saved. The whole of the other biscuit on board was, unfortunately, soaked with salt. water, and not, a drop of fresh water was saved except in casks below which could not be S ot ?*" From the morning of the 4th of July until the morning of the 9th, no one on board tasted ■water, and on that day the first death occurred the chief officer expiring about mid-day. Before, death he went raving mad, andhad to be tied to the foremast. On tha 9th of Jiily alittiie rain fell, and hope revived again, the sailors and officers relating to each other stories of men having survived for" thirty and forty, days in an opesii boat. '■' At^thi's time, too,' each man was given a "piece of sheepskin — useHTor chafing y gea'r~^herewith' ' to cateiiy the^lieavy dew whicfrfajlsin the tropics, and .utheirpucking of'n,thei wool, together •w|th occasional jahowefs, kept life in :them} - , At the' -same time - they - mi&iigeilto make fishhooks out of a piece '," o£"'old^wirei;; ■'■?ss' 'i?fy:s*- ms e na bled to -ke^^a.tolerkbie suppljr; of .• jfish. ; jßut ? all : i vo'niVdari 'soon • commenc(96l to suffer terribly ;■ f^eth^j'f allliig: o\it t and ■■'•i;ji!ieir. iacesy 'ife^Bb^ 4 1fea«^>bemg almofit 'M eatitik away.' ; : ;fl<>pe»r '^ywjf^^^'.' ,-^ft^Ph^M|c®%;by4pea

a chart, and could not make for any of the islands about, sothenvoiily hope rested in falling in with some vessel. Thirty s forty, aud sixty days^passect bji and yet no relief came. Then \a second, death occurred, Andrew Larsen, a seamen, either falling or jumping overboard on the 6th September. On the 22nd September one of: the passengers — Clawell— died in a delirious state,, 'inj '. the"' j'oretop, starvation.* Another sailor soon afterwards died of want of water, but the remaining eight persons all lived to see the mouth of October come in. During the time that had passed, three vessels had been seen, but none of them was very near. Sometime between the 4th and Bth of October a barque was seen and came, quite 1 close to the waterlogged brig — so close indeed that Captain Hopken asserts most positively they, could see a female figure in a black and Jred: shawl on board — but the master passed by without stopping to render assistance.. The name of the vessel could not be distinguished; but' she is believed to have been an American one, judging by her rig and., shape. The poor feeble sufferers on board the brig made every signal that could be made — waving their hands and old pieces of canvas, but the inhuman monster entrusted with the command of the vessel showed no com-: passion for those in distress, .and went by without sending a boat to see what they/ required. Then it was that the hearts of those on board sank within them, and sn soon as "hope" deserted them they .died off most rapidly. From the time the barque passed by in sight of the distressed, to the 18th October when the Mps.es Taylor fell in with the brig — some 12 to 16 days — seven men succumbed, most of them going mad. Before this however they had liecome so weak and emaciated that they could not steer the^ vessel, and could not go up and down the rigging. When a dead body had to be consigned to the sea it was rolled on to the deck and washed overboard, those on board being too weak to lift it. The vigorous and the strong of course survived the longer, one of the pas-, sengere, named Crane, living until Monday, October 15. Captain. Hopken was then the only one left. For three days and three nights he lived on the forecastle deck, and jit length was unable to get to' the bag of fish hanging Xo the rigging. The dreariness of being alone oq the wreck, of spending hour after hour in solemn silence, of "hope deferred," and at last that hope lost in despair, all combined to bring the only survivor to the determination of putting an end to his great privation and suffering. He was dozing when the steamer's boat went alongside, and was resting for the purpose of gaining' strength to undergo* the exertion of dissolving, a piece of bluestone in ajbottle of ink that he had saved, for the^urpose of poisoning himself, put P/6viden"©^ ua< * ordained it otherwise! . / r > » There is no doubt jthM Captain Hopken must . have, possessedjran iron constitution. He weighed about^§2slbs. when", he left San FranciscOjXand when rescued he weighed 14OjJ?s. Itis also wonderful how clear a record he kepljof the days and dates. In a canvas satchel, which was brought on board, was an almanack, with various crosses and marks' to show how long they had been on the wreck, and the dates on which the various persons on board had died, iln a small phial was also a sheet o? foolscap paper with the following particulars written on it in ink: — " American brig Shelehoff, of San Francisco, was water-logged on the 3rd. of July, 1871, in a hurricane, in 16 N. and 11 17 W. Was afloat to September (look :in Almauack). Captain Hopken, San I Francisco; mate T. Thomson, Scbleswig Holstein ; second mate James M'Carthy, Port Patrick, Scotland ; steward PJDunn San Francisco., Seamenr^Layvadore^olice, I Silesia ; Mitchell Veago, Calabria ; Andrew ; Lar/sen, Sweden; L. Lewis, Nessen, Germany. , " Passengers : Ashley Crane, San Fran-r cisco ; Charles Davis, San Francisco ; {Charles Kurty,' Germany ; Bartholomew Clawell, Germany. ;! '' ■ J ' ] '' ' ' " Written on board the brig Shelehoff on Monday. September 10J 1871. We have suffered hard hunger, _and thirsti , Crewj |pasßengers, and officers, beg to send th ( is to 'California and publish it in the paper."