A TERRIBLE STORY OF SHIPWRECK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6147, 30 July 1881, Page 7

A TERRIBLE STORY OF SHIPWRECK.

SEX SAILORS DROWNED AND NINE STARVED-TO>i>EATHi%'' j . The other :morning. the Allan .Royal jMail steamer Hibernian brought to Liverpool, from St. John, N. 8,, George ! mate,' and now. theonly survivor, of the'crew of 16 hands of the London ship Nonantum. The -Nonantum -was lost on the Canadian coast last fall, 'and the sufferings ahd'filtimate death of nearly the whole of the-crew, as narrated by Kidger, -were of the most melancholy character. . From Kidger's statement it-appears that the Nonantnm, with a cargo of deals, left Miramichi for Gibraltar on the 18th November. Almost from the-time of starting very heavy weather was experienced, which continued increasing in violence as the time advanced. The vessel was roughly handled and seriously strained, so much so that the captain and crew were apprehensive of her being capsized. Finally it was found necessary to cat away the whole of the masts and leave the vessel drifting about. This wae the only expedient the crew had,, and they waited anxiously the.result. On the 21st, three days, after sailing, the vessel was driven on to_ the cliffs at St. George's Bay, Newfoundland.. The vessel was dashed violently on to the cliffs, and hot a moment had the crew to spare in launching the two boats, as the Nonautum, shortly after first striking, was literally smashed to pieces on the rocks. Five men got into one of the boata and the remaining eleven into the other. The former reached the cliffs, when it was pitched bodily.on to them, the small craft being dashed to pieces, and not one of the occupants escaping. It was the intention of those in the larger boat to make for a port some 40 miles distant, but the sea was so rough that this boat also was capsized, and all of them thrown into the water. • The boat, fortunately, righted, and the men scrambled into her, except one, who perished. The boat could make no headwjiy,_and the men had no alternative but to make for the beach, which they did. " The weather at the time was terribly cold, and the suffering of the men was intense, and one of the poor fellows died on the beach. The ground was covered with snow to the depth-of several feet, and the nine men at once struck out for the nearest inhabited place, which was 60 miles distant. The march was through a dense wood, but the travelling was slow, as there was nothing to guide the shipwrecked men. On their journey two of the men went off in another direction and were never afterwards seen. The remaining seven journeyed on, but met no one, and as each day passed the hope of reaching their'destination decreased. At night the poor fellows lay' down to sleep in the snow huddled together, and woke with the daylight to resume: their march. The men had saved not a article of food or anything else from the wreck, and had not tasted food from the time their vessel wentashore. Gradually their numbers grew less and less as the fatigue of the journey became more and more severe, and the men had to give up through; sheer exhaustion the task of reaching their destination. There were many and great dangerous encounters by the men on their march, not the least being that of walking unknowingly into several streams. These streams were numerous and always co/ered by the'snow, and as the men journeyed time after time they fell through. Through this the men suffered terribly from frost bite. Finally there were but four men left, Captain Johnstone, of the Nonantum, Kidger, and two others, and the captain and one of tho other men becoming exhausted could proceed no further. Captain Johnstone also exhibited signs of insanity. But at this time there was not one of the company could help the other, and the two unfortunate men were left behind. Kidger and his last remaining comrade, who was a foreigner named Petersen, trudged oh. It was now ten days since the wreck, and not a taste of food had passed the lips of the unhappy men. Petersen now also gave up, and Kidger was forced to leave him to his fate. The journey through the woods and the snowdrift was terribly tedious and difficnlt. The night after parting with his last companion Kidger again lay down in the snow to make his bed, but when he arose ■ after the preceding night's sleep he could not • walk, and then he realised to the fullest extent the acute pains of frostbite. He could scarcely stir.-and-it seemed as if the end of his journey had been reached, when he was fallen in with by two fisherman, who earned him to their house, where they treated him with every possible kindness. A band of thirty other fishermen was organised and went in search of the remainder of the crew. They succeeded in finding alive the captain and another of the crew, named Patrick Dooley, but the captain died shortly afterwards. There were several bodies subsequently discovered; one of them bearing indications of having been slightly mutilated. It was learned from Dooley that this was owing to himself and the captain eating a portion of the dead body, so ravenous were they for food. Dooley died four weeks after being found, notwithstanding the great care and attention bestowed upon him. Kidger had to have both his feet amputated, and on arriving at Liverpool could only move by the aid of crutches and with wooden pads on his knees. He is a man of robust physiqe, and but for the absence of his feet bears no indication of haying gone through so terrible an experiment. Nothing, he said, could exceed the kindness of the fishermen, who brought a doctor a distance of 40 miles to attend on; him and Dooley. Kidger on reaching Liverpool was received by the shipwrecked Mariners' Society, aud forwarded to his home at Stoke, Devenport. The fishermen who visited the scene of the disaster of the Nonantum found the remnant of the boat which was smashed on the cliffs, but the only trace discovered of the five men who perished in it was the finding of the detached hand of one of the poor fellows,