THE TRAGEDY OF THE ALBATROSS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9088, 23 June 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE TRAGEDY OF THE ALBATROSS.

In "Foul Play," that admirable novel by Charles Reade and Dion Boucicault, the hero and heroine are cast on an island in the Pacific and play at Robinson Crusoe in tho most delightful manner. After much cogitation the gentleman conceives a novel idea of communicating with the mainland —thousands of miles away. Having first ascertained the position of the island, he catches some ducks, fastens various messages to their wings, and sets them free. One of them is caught by an active sailor on board a Yankee barque, and the lady is rescued from the island by her friends. So much for fiction. Now for truth

On Sunday, the 18th of September last year, a lad was wandering along the sandy beach at North Freemautle, in the colony of Western Australia, when he came upon a dead albatross lying just above high water-mark. The bird, which evidently had just expired, was fitted round the neck with a tin band about two inches wide. This the boy unfastened, and found to be nine inches long, and _covered with punc- [ tured letters forming words which he could [ not understand. He took it next day to his employer, a Perth jeweller, named NesI bit, wlio saw that the inscription was in ! French, and read as follows : —" 13 naufrages soht refugiiis sur les iles Cro/.eb, 4 Aout, 1857." Freeniantle lies about three thousand miles E. three-quarters N. from the Crozets, a volcanic group in the Southern Indian Ocean. It did not appear very I clear whether the men had been shipI wrecked on the 4th of August or whether that was the dny on which they had sent their message, but probably it was the dats of shipwreck, for conjecture pointed to the likelihood of the albatross—impelled by fear of the strange collar with which it had been weighted — having travelled incessantly on and on as fast as its wearying wings permitted, until it broko its heart at the first land it reached. And an albatross would take a much shorter time than six weeks to fly three thousand miles without any lengthened break. Mr. Nesbit brought the discovery of the dead bird and of its message to the immediate notice of the public authorities of tho colony, who telegraphed full particulars to the Colonial Office. Tho story naturally awakened great interest throughout Australia, but upon a vessel reporting that she had touched at the Crozets and seen nothing of the alleged refugees, doubts arose as to its genuineness. It will bo remembered that a ship called the Strathmore was wrecked upon these islands some years ago, and that the survivors, including a woman, lived on them for months before their rescue by a passing whaler. Since then a store depot has been kept up on Possession Island. This and the neighbouring islets were searched in vain for traces of the shipwrecked men, and although no one who had actually seen that rusty tin plate was likely to believe it had been put on the dead bird as a hoax, yet as such, in the eastern colonics, tho story soon came to be regarded. ( Happily the title of that albatross to fame has now been abundantly confirmed. By the last English mail the Western Australian Government received despatches from the Colonial Office with enclosures from the Foreign Office, among which was the following communication from the French Premier to Lord Lytton :— [Translation.] Paris, January 27, ISSS. M. I'Amhassadeur, —In consequence of a letter which Mr. Egerton had addressed to me on the subject of the shipwreck on the Crozt't Islands of thirteen mariners, supposed to be Frenchmen, I asked the Minister of Marine and of the Colonies to send a vessel in the direction indicated to search for traces of the shipwrecked men. With reference to this communication, Admiral Krantz has just forwarded to me the following telegram, which he lias received from the Admiral in command on the Indian Ocean

Mozambique, January 11,1SSS. •'The Meurthe has just returned. Thirteen shipwrecked men from the Tamaris, after having exhausted their provisions, left the Isle of I'igs on the 13th ot September to go to Possession Island. No trace was found of their arrival there, nor at any other island. Remains the hope that some fishing vessel may have nicked them up." 1 have the honour to bring this telegram to the notice of your Excellency, and to request that you will, if you think well, submit it to the Government of her Britannic Majesty. Receive, itc., (Signed) Fi.oukens, His Excellency Lord Lytton. Thus it appears that five days before their message-bearer fell dead upon the North Freemantlc shore the Crozet castaways, leaving some record behind them, had quitted the isle on which hey had originally landed. Whether they were drowned in their effort at escape remains as yet unknown. But this much seems too unfortunately certain, that the life of the noble bird was sacrificed in vain, and that not to that marvellous flight with its pathetic end was due their succour, it succour came to the seamen who had sought it by so strange a means.