A FOOLHARDY VOYAGE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 126, 27 May 1880, Page 4

A FOOLHARDY VOYAGE.

A terrible story of privation and danger has been revealed by the arrival at New York of two seamen who, in July last, essayed on the venturesome attempt to sail from Boston to Melbourne. The names of the men are Herbert F. Burrill, of Falraouth, Cape Cod, and Andrew Coon, of Nantucket. They were landed at New York by the steamer City of Para, which picked them up at Bahia. It is stated that Burrill, who had been almost from childhood a seaman, had read with lively interest the accounts of voyages in small boats on the Atlantic, and from these he conceived the notion of making a voyage longer than had yet been accomplished by any other person, and in a smaller boat than had yet essayed ocean navigation. Accordingly be built a tiny craft of ljj tons burden, fore and aftrigged, and changeable at pleasure from schooner to aloop, and en July 9 set sail from Boston with the intention of reaching Melbourne. He named bis boat the Golden Gate, and engaged the man Coon to accompany him. He calculated upon reaching Melbourne before the cloje of the Exhibition in that city, and thus being able to make money by showing his boat. Provisions and water were, taken on board the Golden Gate at Boston for a four months' voyage. The craft was docked over the forecastle, and the bedding was stowed on the provisions and water tanks in the forecastle. The bed was for only one man, as there only two on board, one of whom would be occupied in the navigation. AH appears to have gone well for about two months, for on the fifty-eighth day out the Golden Gate reached San Jago, in the Cape de Verde Islands, where she was repaired. Fresh provisions were taken on board, and on September 17 the little craft set sailjfor the African coast. A succession of storms was encountered, however, and the provisions having got wet commenced to ferment, and burst the tins .in which they were stored. Most of them were, therefore, thrown overboard. On December 11 it bicame evident that what was left of the provisions would not last until the African'coast was made, and the Golden Gate was then headed for the nearest land, which was St Helena, but light winds and a strong current carried her to leeward, and Burrill was obliged to shape a courea for South America. When 600 miles from Brazil the provisions gave out, and for 25 days Burrill and his companion are reported to have subsisted on water "By^da^foT^lortnign'r^Bna'wiJenwiinin about a week's sail from Bahia they were in such an exhausted, condition as to ba unable to stand even for the short time necessary to re-adjust their nautical instruments and to take obser-

vations, and they afterwards sailed by dead reckoning. At length, famishing and barely able to steer their cockleshell, the two adventurous mariners ran into a small creek about 20 miles north of Bahia, where they dropped anchor. There was a native settlement in the the place, which is named Aasa de Torre, and the inhabitants took them ashore and treated them with such kindness that they afterwards recovered strength. They were afterwards sent by a coaster to Bahia, and placed on board the City of Para, their boat being also takenn ' on board. Burrill is 34 years old, and Coon 23.