THE CASTAWAYS AT THE ANTIPODES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9381, 12 December 1893, Page 5

THE CASTAWAYS AT THE ANTIPODES.

Some additional particulars of the wreck at the Antipodes are published by theDunedin Star.

The reason why the men had to do absolutely without a fire on the island was that they had no matches. Even with the means of obtaining a light; however, there would have been some difficulty in keeping a fire going, since there is no wood on the island, and nothing bub tussocks that would burn.

During their detention at the Antipodes the castaways saw four vessels pass to the southward and eastwards, bub ib is pretty evident that the flag was not seen. The first of these vessels was an iron barque, passing close in on the seventeenth day of the detention, in beautiful clear weather, but so early in the morning that there was no time to make special signals to her. The next day a full-rigged ship passed in misty weather. The party did all they could to attract) her attention, but in vain. The i other two vessels passed early in the morning, in thick weather, and there was no ] chance of their seeing the signals. About sixteen days before they were picked up they lashed a piece of timber to a life-buoy, after having cub out the latitude and longtitude and the words " Shipwrecked crewsend help," and set it adrift, with the view of it being pickod up by a passing vessel. It was washed ashore next day on a small beach, and the mate swam round and picked it up, after which it was thrown out a second time and went clear. Another step taken, as a moans of attracting attention, was to remove the improvised signal staff from the place where it was first planted and set it up on a hill. The men made a flag out of canvas, a red shirt, and a piece bunting, and a regular watch was set at the point. It. was this signal that attracted Captain Fairchild's attention. One of the most surprising facts there is to chronicle about the affair is that none of the party discovered either the depot or the cattle and sheep which are maintained on the island. In the course of their wandorings they must have been very near the finger-post which points the way to the depot, at which, it may bo mentioned, there is a complete stock of clothes, food, blankets, matches, needles, fishing lines, and other small articles necessary for convenience as well as the preservation of life. The explanation, such as it is, of this failure to light upon tho very ample stock within easy reach of them, is that the castaways were able to find food and water close to where they camped, and were thus nob actually driven to explore, and secondly—though perhaps thisisthochicf reason—-that they felt he want of sufficient clothing, and were not in tho humour to travel over what was to them an unknown island, miry in places, when there was no apparent inducement to shift far away from where they first, settled down. One of their number, Ballard, who was on the look-out when the barque struck, and gave the first warning of breakers ahead, had years ago worked on a gumfield in the Auckland district, bat. doos nob eeem to have had any idea of there being a depot on the island. To show how narrowly they missed the cattle, it may be mentioned that after being received on the Hinomoa one of the men remarked that as he was walking one day ho heard a noise something like the bleat of a sheep. He put it down at the time to the sound of an albatross, but from what he afterwards learned he believes it was what he at first imagined it to be.

The second mate, Mr. Morrissey, says that the first edibles found on the island were limpets, which the men ate in moderation, fearing that too many would bo injurious. They also killed a penguin on the first day of their stay—the only one they saw at tho time. They tasted the heart and found it not so bad, but it was some time before they could quite make up their minds to tackle the albatross and nellies and penguins as food. Thoy got used to it, however, by eating this flesh with roots. On tho 2nd of October thoy found penguin eggs, and as the nests were afterwards discovered in numbers a regular stock was collected and put by for use. Penguin flesh also became more tolerable. They used to cut the fle?h in slices and dry it in the sun. Ono of their worst troubles was the want of clothes. They had no more than what thoy were wearing when they took to the boats. To get over the difficulty as far as possible they cut up one of the boot's sails, and served the canvas round. The second mate unravelled a pair of mittens to use the wool as thread, and thoy made needles out of the albatross bones. In that way they mended their clothes and made the flag. The apprentice Clemontson is quite a boy. His father, a shipchandler, of Liverpool, owned a sharo in the barque and is interested in sevorul other vessels. The youngster was making his first voyage, just to see how he liked being a sailor. Ho now says that he has had enough of it. Captain Fairchild says there is only one outlying danger round the island— reef running out about half a mile with a rock three feet high on the end, and the barque hit it right by the shore end. She was heading north-east, with the wind at east-south-east. Tho vessel has entirely disappeared ; nob a vestige of her is left, nob even a splinter of wood on the little patches of beach. She went down in deep water. Tho island Is about seven miles round, and say three miles long. The highest point on it is Mount Galloway, 1320 feot high. I named it after the engineer wo had with us at the time. The depot is painted white, lb can be seen for miles out at sea, that is from the northward. The top of the mountain is only a reasonable walk from the depot. A man could do it in half an hour. When we got to the island and saw the signal I thought the people, whoever they were, would bo at the depot, and that they had sent porhaps one man to the signal polo. I therefore steamed round to the dopob and blew the whistle, bub no one came, and I couldn't make it out. The idea then struck mo that there was only one man on the island. I sent tho second mate ashore at tho dopot, and told him to walk through the island. He did so, and he found the party at the camp. i could hardly say how long it would take a man to walk from the camp to the dop3t, because it would all depend on how he chose his ground, but taking the worst walking there is, I should say that the distance could be done in a couple of hours. The island is fairly flat, without any bush as thick as your thumb, and tussocks up to the knees. There are soft places here and there, which are heavy walking. The depot is fully provided. She only thing I can now see to improve tho lances of castaways is to have more finger boards. In most placos we have several marked "Provision depot, 4 miles," and so on, with a hand on each pointing out the direction. The words are painted in black ; letters on a white ground, and when we set ! them up we carve out the figure for the number of miles. There is only one finger board at the Antipodes, on tho flat between Mount Gallowayandasmaller mountain 500 ft.high. This finger board is nob more than half amile from where the men wore. I shall ask for more finger-boards to take down there. We saw the cattle and the shoep on the island on this trip. We saw five sheep together and then four more, a cow with a calf, a big bull, and a spotted heifor. Howdo I account for the party nob seeing the marks of the live stock ? \\ ell, that is easy to understand. The. travelling is bad for cattle. They sink pretty deep in some places. And the feed is so plentiful that they do nob need to travel far. The first lob I pub ashore camped year after year in the identical spot we left them on. We drove them up between the two hills about a year ago, and crossed some soft ground in doing so, ' and they have kept there, and never wander round to the western side of Mount Galloway. There are no dangerous currents about the island, bub it belongs to a group that are righb in the track of vessels bound from the colonies to the Horn, and you may depend upon it that vessels have been lost hereabouts of which we have never heard anything.