TRAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

NZ Truth, Issue 117, 14 September 1907, Page 8

TRAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

.•> GENERAL GRANT, . j

From Melbourne to London.

: . ■ .;- ■- j tifrftts into a Gigantic Cavern at the Auckland -IslcSri ;% . j

'• i, ,^Ten Survivors Wait Eighteen Months for Succem'i . j j

iJTKe Ocean' olcT, *&&&%§W*&* ' '(Centuries old, . ■ " < . iiStrong as youth; ancT'as uncontrolled, . [Paces restless to and fro, . iUp and down the sands of. gold.- --! -His, beating heart is now at rest' 5 : : lAnd far and wide. . > \,;,With ceaseless flow,. ;'„£- -„.. •■ \ iHis beard' of snow '■:';' -^ !. Heaves with the fieavingr'"©! ins • breast. ii.^ — Longfellow.General Grant,- as a sctiooli kid would guess by her name, was 'an American ship. She was one of ■;the Bath, Maine,, turpentine-built boats, of 1100 tons register, ana •was owned m Boston, Mass. On May 4, 18C6, she quitted Hobson s Bay, 'bound, f.or London, with a full ■ complement of passengers, and a ! valuable cargo of wool, skins, and gold, valued at about £120,000. Her captain. William Kerby Lough■]in, an Irishman from Newry, looked forward to a fast passage, notwithstanding that Gape Horn would have to be rounded m the dead of Winter. The short days, the long nights, the though stcadv seas, were nothing to a tight vessel like the General Grant, . jflMtlv <t<he crow she carried. As long as there were no stray icebergs to be bumped, against, m the dead of night, nothing would hinder her from speeSinc on; towards northern latitudes; provided she gave the land A WIDE BERTH. '•(But that was exactly the thing she 'didn't 'do. Nothing particular occurred up to the 13th, when the . .Grant had been out nine days. On .that day, about ten o'clock, the •look-out man on the fo'castle head signalled land; which. was, supposed to be Disappointment Island. The General Grant was steering cast-quarter-north ; a slight breeze blew from the south-west. ;'The night •was dark." says a survivor, and we kept to the south-east for about an hour, then again steered eastward. Towards eleven o'clock the 'Auckland Islands lay right- m front .of us. The ship then tacked. "The wind was feeble, and the sea ran short and angrily ; we scarce made any wake. We kept on. the port tack for nearly two hours, during Which time we were contin;xuallv drawing towards the land. The ship struck the perpendicular rocks, and lost her mizzen guy and rudder. Then the man at the wheel had several ribs broken; 'After this the .ship drove straight towards the. land, and at length plunged into a cavity about 250 yards m length. "The mizzen-mast, knocking against the roof of the cavern, was r broken off level with' the deck, and • came down headlong, carrying with it the mainmast, bowsprit and cathead. At the same time, some .large nieces of rock, which had been loosened m the concussion," fell, and CRUSHED INTO THE FORECASTLE. "In this critical position the ship remained all night, incessantly beatIng against the rocks, with twentyfive fathoms of water under her i stern. At daybreak we began to .get the boats ready, and up to the ■ moment the most perfect order bad On account of the tide, the waves, and the wind, .which, had ; risen, and Was increasing m violence, and of the water which' ■m- i ivaded the deck, the lady passengers. :.were lowered into the boats. ■ "A Mrs Jewel, though supported rfcv a rope, fell into the water. &iTeer, one of the crew, caught hold hof her, but the sea was so tieaw^ ; that he could not lift her into the' fyboat. Her husband.- however, leaped from the ship, swam towards the •l)oat, and succeeded m rescuing her.

'Allen and Caugliey, passengers,- following Jewell's example, reached the hoat sale and sound. ' "The longboat at this time was floating on the deck, with the sea balancing her stern. The pig started to make her way through the breakers, and five men manned the pinnace. The chief mate attempted to return to the -sjrip, whereupon the longboat, with at 'least fourteen passengers on board, sheered off from the vessel, which was rapidly sinkins. The doomed merchantman had struck the barren Sarah's Bosom at 20 minutes past 1 a.m., and it was now seven o'clock as she was making her last dip. The longboat j advanced ' ahout fifty yards, but could not clear the mouth of the cavern, m consequence of the eddy of the waves which struck 1 the rock. It was soon full of water, and fountfereS,- leaving its human, cargo battling for life with THE ANGRY SURGE.?'Ashworth, Hayman, -and SanguilIy reached the breakers by swimming, and were picked up by the other boats. The last time that we saw the captain, Loughlin. he was holding on to the mizzen-mast, with a sailor near him, and he waved his handkerchief as the- General Grant went down. "For a considerable space on each side .of the grotto the walls, or sides', completely perpendicular, attained an elevation of several hundred feet, and m many nlaces they overhung the gloomy hollow." Owing to one of those strange combinations of circumstances which human skill ds powerless to overcome a strpng ship, manned by an excellent crew,, drifted like a raft on to the inhospitable coast, not to dash herself to pieces aeainst the almost interminable ramparts of rocks which surround them, but to sink m a deep crevasse of volcanic origin, against whose sides the hull was but partially shattered before foundering. "A terrible sliriek" arose." said one of -the survivorsv "and they were no more. He spoke of forty or fif 1 v living beings. The loss of the shin was attributed to the circumstance that her anchors and cahles were stowed' aw av m the hold, instead of being ready to drop m shallow water. Of course, thn skinner hart reckoned that he would not need them for a few months. till "Hie ship ha ; d reached the waters o£ the Thames. SANGUILLY'S STORY. Sanguilly, who is now a resident of Sydney, and the sole survivor cf the eighty-three all told, who left Melbourne with a light heart on that May morning, explained to a. "Truth" man his version of the cause of the foundering of the vessel. The heaving of the doomed ship, he said, caused her masts to strike the roof of the cavern at every >h ; eavo r wiitih the result that the masts were forced through the Kelson at the bottom of the ship, leaving the water to pour m like a sluice. And what Sangu.illy doesn't "know ahout the matter, there is none now left 1 to . put him right. The melancholy narrative of the above-quoted survivor enters into comparative details of the difficulties experienced by the castaways m reaching the land, and of the extreme scarcity of food. They oct cupied three weeks m seeking out a place of refuge, and m minutclv exploring the eastern and southern shores of Adam Island. Searching i amongst the old encampments, they came unon a flint and a couple of rusty files ; an inestimably precious treasure, as henceforth they were not ' under the necessity of incessantly watching their fire, lest it should die out.

On December 8, 18CC. after several visits to Port Ross, the pinnace returned from Musgrave Strait, where they formed the design of repairing it, and of attempting to reach m it the. coast of New Zealand. Dm- j ing their 18 months' -sojourn !A BULL-DOG I (witli his ears cut), and some oilier dogs approached their hut ; and j they concluded that these do,a;s had | not long been inhabitants of the island. The pinnace, which measured 22ft. m length by 6ft. sin. m depth, was decked with seal skins. The sails were made out of old sailcloth, which had formerly roofed Musgrave's wooden house, and they put on board the following stock of provisions :— The flesh of a goat (marked A-S) and of two kids, caught on Enderby Island ; a quantity of smoked seal ; • some dozens of sea-birds eggs, seven tin cases .of preserved soup and beef," which had been carefully kept wi'fch a view to this lexpeditibn- ; and a supply of fresh water m vessels made of sealskin. " All being .ready, on January 22, 1867. Bartholomew Crown, the first mate ; William Newton Scott._ Andrew Morrison, and Peter McNiven, seamen, quitted. Port Ross, without comnass, without' chart, without nautical -instruments of any kind, j with the desperate intention of reaching the shores of New Zealand, that land of promise which they were destined never to reach. • The fate of the hoat was wrapped m impenetrable P'loom. Like, the lost boat load of th<s steamer. Elingamife -that foundered near the Three Kimrs a fr-w years ago ; and the. lost boat-load of the coffinship' Avaeama. which sunk oft the coast-, its fate has lonn; ceased to l;e commented on. But possibly hex boats are. yet. lying on some solitary beach* of this ■ great Southern ocean, ■ WITH THE BONES of the unfortunate seamon close at hand ; or perhaps the water-bags leaked or were capsized, a triSir.K ! thing m some circumstances, but the ] warrant and the loreshadower of | madness, despair,- and the . tragic j death of the boat's crew. On Gc~ | tober (j a sail appeared m the I west. " The boat was launched to meet it, and signal iires were light- ! cd. As it happened, the day was j clear and beautiful. It seemed to j the people m the boat, as well as | to those on shore, that it was im- j possible they should not he seen, the distance being only a few miles, j The fires were kept alight all night, j but m vain. In consequence of .this disappoint;- j ment, they resolved to establish ! themselves' in Enderbv Island, where it was easier /to look out for passing ships. In the interval they collected some old planks 'lying on ihcj shore, and m a former whaling station. . It was on March S that . they passed to the other Island, and erected there two huts. They also raised some lofty piles of timber to light j the fire.* intended to serve for signals, and they decided that from morning to evening a -look-out man should keep watch upon the oiling. ; On a visit mad? to the north-west ( point of the island, to a bay Known to seamen by tile name of Faith j Harbor, with a. view to collect tun-, her. they discovered, for the first time, .some traces of pigs, and captured a young porker. On a f--e?---ond visit, they caught another, but this time were compelled to adopt a better method than running it down. The castaways occupied their time m hunting for provender, m watching for ships, m despatching messng- j es' to sea, m making clothing— caps, ] coats, trousers, shoes, .•shirts, jnclM:-; ing a complete suit for Mrs Jewell j —out of sealskin. In August, ISG7. Daniel McLellan | frtl ill. ami on September 3 he pnr-s-j ed away at the a?e of 03. Before j he died. McLellan stated' that he was a native of Ayr. Scotland, and had j a wife and family living m Olas- j gow. where for years he had been employed as fireman or as a rigger. On November 19. the look-out DESCRIED A" SAIL some distance out at sea. Unfortunately the boat was away m quest of provisions, but fires were lighted. The ship, however, passed the island m the direction of south by east, like a glimmering phantom on the lonely ocean, m the direct track

sf sailors bound from Melbourne to Cape Horn. On the 21st, another ship was signalled as bearing up for Enderby Island, along the eastern coast, and the boat immediately put out to her. She proved to be the brig •Amherst, from the Bluff, Gilroy, captain. One of the General Grant's shipwrecked crew thus cxptessed himself: "When we got alongside the men threw a rope to us. and we calm-' bered on deck. Words were powerless to express the sentiments of joy which we felt on seeing ourselves at last delivered from the miseries and privations we had endured for the long period of eighteen months." The Amherst, under the stress of violent squalls, steered for Sarah's Bosom, or Port Ross, and anchored there after sunset. On the follov/ing day, the wind having to some extent, subsided, a boat was despatched to fetch of! the remaining castaways. Captain Gilroy and the crow of the brig showed most benevolent attention towards these unfortunates. ■ and eagerly rendered all the assistance within their power. This done, the Amherst bore away for the Bluff, which she reached on January 10, with the sole survivors —nine men and a woman— of the once s&y company of the ill-fated General Grant, whose timbers are vet strewing the beaches of that bleak islo of the Southern Ocean.