FIFTY-ONE DAYS ON A CORAL REEF.

North Otago Times, Volume XIV, Issue 542, 26 July 1870, Page 7 (Supplement)

FIFTY-ONE DAYS ON A CORAL REEF .

The" iron elippe'r, barque, Silver '£!raig, Captain Cotiu, whioh lately arrived at .Liverpool, brought six seamen, the sole surTiyors'.of the crew of ,'th© layerpool ship Merourius, who were piqked up from a coral reef off ttie northe.cn I^rajzil, Tyhera tVey ' , had managed 'to existf 51 days. v ' On the 15th jOf May, when about ten mjlea'frbm^th^B'oq^ Beef, Captain , Cohu discerned a lum^on the reef, and he ma,de it out to be'a* htit o^some^kin^*' ' Drawing nearer,' tie ' observed a mast, with" a' signal of distress flying, and he at once bore dp Wn, towards the reef.', As he drew . nearer the island hernia enabled to see that the supposed flag was a .striped shirt, hoisted ' half-mast , high. The Silver Craig .was hove to within a mil© , and a half, or two miles of the 'reef, and then Biz sea-" men oame alongside in two small boats, whioh they had constructed from -the wreckage' found.. on the reef. They said they; believed themselves to bo, the sole survivors of tha ship ' Merourius,' of Liverpool, which had been wreoked, on the reef while ''on * voyage from, San Francisco for Liverpool. They had little or no olothes,.,' but, with the exception of a , coloured man, were all in good condition, having been living upon birds" eggs, shell fish, fish, and even tattle, drinking fresh, water which, they had the good fortune to find op the. reef. Captain Cohu and his officers and crew took' the castaways on board the Silver Craig, supplied them with food and clothing, and, as already stated, brought them to Liverpool. The Meroarius .was a fine new iron olippar ship, built in'Gla&gow.in' 1869, and) had mads a very rapid paBB*ge from the Clyde 'to Sydney, whence she wai returning! ,-yvi San Francisco, on her maidenvvoyage under the .command of ..Cfaptain Cuthbertson, She left San -FsanoUoo on,,tlie 5th. of January, and was wrecked on Beoaa Beef, a dangerous reef lying in lat. 3.52 S., long. 33 20 W., in early morning on, the 25th of .March. About five minutes before the Bhip straok breakers were observed ahead, and the captain was called,, Bfe immediately altered,, the course of the ship,iput although .the helm was put hard over it was too Jafce. ,The side of the ship grazed the sharp „ edge ofvthe coral below -the water, and then she Btruok, heavily twioe afterwards, being at this time apparently over a ledge of the rook. She soon begun to fill, and suddenly lurching outwards,, fell over ,the edge pf the rooky shelf into' deep water, an.d went down in about eight fathoms. , Several men escaped with their lives, and when day broke moved to the , unwashed parts of the reef. At this tims.it' was -* supposed there were only five aarvivora oat of 22 who had been aboard the ship. The oarpenter was ' ' seen alive near the reef, but a large wave oame and ,: , washed him into one of the holes, or Email caverns > whioh the sea has worn in the ooral, and he was not seen again. < . : -. The ship, straok about three o'clock in the morning,' and when day broke all that was to be seen of the. Merourius were the tops of her fore and mainmast., Afterwards she partly broke up, and some, oft the • wreokage washed ashore. . The survivora had ?a < dreary proBpeot before them. The Booas Beef o.on- ■ • sists of two coral islands, in extent about 15 aoreg> > each; They are separated at high water, but the space .between them -can be walked over »t« los*^ i water. The reef is of a vary dangerous character^ being right in the traok of vessels. The most notable loss of late- years -was that -of the Loadoa olipper Dunoan Dunbar, wreoked on the reef about two years ago.' ' PortionB of her wreck are' still 'visible, and these Bad relics were i of the greatest' use to the fiix survivors of the Mercurius. They, lotind 1 • two irom water-tanks, .with a capacity of 400 gallons • eaokc From theNvreokage strewed about they built ' themselves a log hutj and with the aid of a broken ' sheath knifOj a hammer 2oz. weight, and a 'large copper bolt/> they contrived out of pieces of planking to build two small- boats, -the nails with which they were put togetherohaving first to*be drawn out of the old wrecked timber strewn about.' For food they had plenty of birds' eggs, young birds, and shell fish, and occasionally managed to catoh fish and turtle*. ' Fire was procured in the Indian, mode by rubbing two dry sticks together ; but ' this was a weary process* two hours' rubbing being required to produce a light, ■ and the fire one© obtained was watched day and night as jealonsly-»a the sacred flame of classical times. The men suffered Beverly from the rays of the fierce tropioal sun — they were in latitude 3 south of ' the Equator — and the reef swarmed with ants,i very . muoh like the English ant in a&e and appearance, - bnt of a most venomous nature.) To protect-, their ■. heads from the sun the men knitted hati of coooanut - fibre if rom the.only tre» they oonld find., on .the reef, .v 1 afid-sowed them together with the same < material, %< 1 threaded in a needle ingeniously made outof a-pieoe >i.of brass fdund on' the island. These, kats they have '■■ brought to Liverpool as precious mementoestof their ,■ I castaway life. The names of the survivors are John - "• 'ColomaSi, D.JML'Call, Middy BaptiBteiiJoaohimnKing ..- Dilbmbep Charles Lanca, anfl Francis Edward Gray. ;. •-