RAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

NZ Truth, Issue 123, 26 October 1907, Page 7

RAGEDIES OF THE SEA.

i WRECK OF THE NISERO. I Months the Captives of the Smellfril I Alien. * 4JRVIVORS RANSOMED FOR 40,000 DOLLARS. •! lie Seamen's Lonely Graves Among the Malays.

;s are empires, changed m aye Thee, Greece, Rome. Carthage, y '•■ are they ? / ls wasted them while they / free, /" ny a tyrant since : their cs obey ger, slave, or savage ; their ied up realms of deserts. 2 so thou, feable save to thy wild waves' /y— ) writes ho wrinkles on thy Jfeure brow— ~/h as creation's dawn beheld, rollest now. .J0& —Byron. I Shipwrecked crews have 'often "been treated ' with great cruelty by the savage natives of the shores upon which they have been cast. They have been plundered, allowed to starve, held prisoners, or eaten, just as suited the taste or cqnven- ' ience of their captors. Thus, in' September, 1858, the St. Paul, bound from Hongkong ' to Sydney, was wrecked on the island of Rossal. The captain and eifht men. went off m a boat to seek assistance", leaving. 327 Chinese passeneers on the island. Four months later When succor arrived-; there remained but one Chinaman to briar"- away, all the rest having been killed, and EATEN BY THE NATIVES. The case of the Nisero's crew was not quite so bad, yet it will show what misery has befallen unfortunate seamen m comparatively recent times. The ' Nisero' was an iron strew steamer of 1818 tons, built; at Whitby m 1878, and owned by Messrs Pinkey and Sons. Sh left Liverpool on June 12, 1883, bound to Penang and Singapore, liaviner on board a crew of 27 men, under the Command of Captain S. Woodhouse. This record of hrr last voyage is gleaned from the narrative published by Mr Bradley third engineer., one of the survivors. •All went well till the Nisero had j passed through Sues, and then her troubles seemed to have commenced. Seven days later, on July 7. I fho Niscvo ran on a sandbank near V THE TWELVE APOSTLES, those barren small isles grouped m: | the southern part of the Gulf of Aden, which everybody knows that] has travelled that route. "I. had zone on watch at midnight," said Bradley, "and about three-quarters . of an hour afterwards the vessel save three or four heavy bumps, and the engines, which were going full speed a minute 'before, nearly Dulled nij short." However, b^ throwing: overboard a hundred tons, 0f ... coal, and working the engines, the vessel •Was got off m the course of the da Tr antl the voyage resumed. ■>< There seems to have been a good deal of unpleasantness between the captain and some of the crew. The following paragraph is significant : "On the Sunday the boats r tfain was disrated to ordinary: seaman, and the mess-room steward also sent before the mast for laziness.- The steward had already been reduced to cook, after having been PUT IN IRONS, and now he was further reduced to common seaman for incompetency." ; " The next day a storm was encountered, and all the coal that remained on deck was cleared off. ' Penang was reached on the 22nd of July, and the disrated — and no doubt discontented— boatswain, who who had been m irons for three days, was handed over to the police. The man, however, got the best of it before the Magistrate. The case was decided m his favor, his wages were paid up to date, and he received his discharge papers. For several months the Nisero

continued to trade m those seas, running as far north as Rangoon, and to the island of , Java m. . the south, calling at Penang, Singapore, Batavia, . and elsewhere. Finally, on the 2 8, th of October, the vessel steamed away from Soiirabaya, as it was understood, for Marseilles. All went weir till the 7th Of November, when, "strange to relate, it was suddenly ascertained .that we , were rather SHORT OF COAL 1 , our superiors being of opinion that : we had not enough on .'board to justify- our making direct f of Point de Galle." Accordingly, the ship was put about for Acheeii Head (at the extreme north of the island 'of Su-^ matra),- >I svnere it Was hoped that a; supply, might be obtained.. The catastrophe that -duickly fol-lowed-this. fatal change of course is best described m the engineer's own words :— : "About eight o'clock, on the evening of Thursday, the Bth, of November, 1883, I turned into m* bunk to get a couple , of hours' rest, as I had to go on watch at 12 o'clock midnight.- • I was just on the point of falling asleep,' when the rinking of the engine-room telegraph roused me to a sense •of something being seriously wrong outside. In a second or two I was on deck, never having left my berth so smartly before. What was my surprise on looking over the starboard gunwale, to . behold :. land ahead t We had been bearing right stem on to it, at full speed, but a ; couple of .seconds before ! My first impression on hearing the telegraph was that we were being . . RUN FOUL OF* by some other vessel ; and such, as I afterwards heard, was * the first thought that struck all hands.- The idea, of land never occurred to me, | as we did not expect- to make Acheen before the morning." , The engines were immediately reversed ; but it was too late. The .weather was thick and' misty, and even after the Ves.sel ■•hail struck— which she did almost immediately— it was iinpos.sible to .ascertain . the nature of the shore. Ail that coulil be seen was a background of trees, apparently .-springing from a sunken island.. .: ' It being impossible to move the vessel, .the order was given to take to the boats. One was quickly launched ; but it was only; after much delay, and by great exertions that a life-boat was got afloat. The next thing was to provision the boats ; this, owing to the way the shi.i had listed over, was a matter of difficulty. „ At length, . however* all was ready, and the boats were manned. "The second officer took char-tre of the small' boat, m which were the chief engineer, third officer, and six men. The i captain, chief officer, second engineer, myself, and the remaining portion of our company were m the. life-boat. The cantain and chief officer, were the last, to leave the ship." THE LIFE-BOAT was the first to reach the shore. When she grounded the men iumpe-1 out, -and hauled her up as each roller struck and lifted her. The smaller boat had hesitated to put off from the wreck for some time, and her non-appearance began to excite uneasiness. After an hour or so she appeared, however, and at about midnight the whole party found themselves safe together, being 28 , m all. They were safe on land, but not. 't soon appealed, safe m other respects. A number of natives, well armed, soon surrounded them. Unfortunate-^ ly, the people on that part of the island were 'at war with the Dutch, who had a settlement not far dis-

tant, and were not likely te regard j any European with a very friendly . aspect* However, through the instrumentality of the Chinese cook, who understood something of the language, the nationality of the castaways was explained, and the natives became more friendly. They lighted two fires, round which the men were glad enough to crowd. . "Unfortunately for us," says Bradley, "the rain fell' m torrents, and this added considerably to our already miserable condition. The few hours I which we had .to pass m this | plight, waiting for daylight, seemed , as though they would never end. ' At last, the long-wished-for morrow arrived, and, m spite of our disasters, we could not refrain from pas- j sing a joke at THE COMICAL APPEARANCE we presented. Wringing wet, cold, and shivering, ' drowsy and fati-eued, and— in the case of those who had laid down— covered from head to foot with sand, we certainly had a very singular look." The village near which the wreck I took place was called Pougafo ; and here a hut was placed at the service of the wet and half-famished crew. "Our first move on arriving was to get a fire goip"- "to prepare something " to drink, and to dry our clothes as best we could. All hands were bundled into the one hut, which consisted of but one apartment. J There was scarcely room m it for •the accommodation of more than two or three men. It had oiiginally 'been the chief's own abode. It was a wooden construction, very roughly put together, and roofed with a leaf resembling the palm. ... The roof was very far from being water-tight ; m many places the sky, m large patches, was visible through it." ■ Yapatee, the head-man of Pougah, was sufficiently kind and svmpathe- ■ tic ; but the prisoners— for such they soon found themselves to be — were -by no means favorably impressed by THE RAJAH OF TENOM, who came, on the following day, to inspect them. The potentate was not easily persuaded that they were, not Dutchmen ; and such members of the crew as had light hair seemed likely, for a time, to fare badly. : ; For- several days the rajah and his j people were busily engaged plundering and stripping the wreck. Mean-, time, the condition' of the captives was full of discomfort and anxiety. Upon due consideration, th*" rajah no doubt concluded that it would be more profitable to hold the crew of the Nisero .for a , ransom than to kill them. 'They were removed to a place of safety m the neighborhood of Tcnom ; and there, after a march through the tropical jungle and treacherous swamps, established m"a hut superior to that the TT had occupiod at Pougah. On the 19th of November, the captives vrere cheered by the sight of a. steamer, evidently a man-of-war, slowly steaming southward and lying close m shore. A few days later a packet was \ received, through a stranger disguised as a pedlar, who slipped it into the hand of one oE the- sailors. The packet contained two letters — one from a Butch raptain, and tlie other from o. resident on the coast, also a Dutchman. In both the captives v/ere exhorted to BE PATIENT AND DISCREET, and assurances of sympathy and assistance were given. Subsequently, supplies m the shape of provisions, clothing, etc., were sent through, and, for the most part, allowed to pass to the unfortunate crew. It now became a question of terms; and Captain Woodhouse persuaded the rajah to let him go to Riga m a Dutch gunboat m order to arrange matters. The cantain went, but did not return. Instead, came a letter sayine that "their stay would be indefinite.' 1 The rajah is described as being m a terrible ran^e at the nonreturn of the captain, "and among ourselves it had a very undesirable effect," says Bradley, "making some low and despondent, and others, to a great extent, surly and disagreeable.". Thq condition of the captives became daily worse. Sickness, too, m the form of ague, fever, diarrhoea, began to show itself ; and for some days the chief mate was m a critical condition. At this time the rajah professed his willingness to give up the men to an English ship, but not to a. Dutch one, without ransom. The bombardment of Tenom by the Dutch, on the 7th of January, did not better the condition of the cap-

fives. They were Hurried yet further inland, awl compelled to endure considerable fatigue and hardship, though they dtf not appear to have been treated WITH INTENTIONAL CRUELTY. On the 19th qf. February, two of the irieir made "an attempt to escatie. Having; gone out on a pretended fishing excursion, they had no difficulty m eluding the somewhat lax vigilance of their guards, and so got away iiito the woods'. But the next day they returned, under the guidance of a native, torn and bleeding, and their clothing torn off their backs, had been plastered all over with mud and mire. Having lost their way m the ; bush, they had become exhausted, and were glad enough to find themselves once more m their place of captivity. But now a glem of; light and hope broke m upon the unfortunate crew of the Nisero. "We were all much elated on Friday 1 , the 22nd of February, at the arrival of a letter from Commander Bickford, of H.M.S. Pegasus. He informed us that every means were being used to obtain our release, and told us to cheer up, also that he was accompanied by a Mr Maxwell; who was thoroughly conversant with the Malay language and customs, and a favorite with the people." Next day substantial evidence of sympathy arrived m the shape of stores of food, • medicines, pipes, and tobacco. A week later further supplies arrived, including a bundle of newspapers, "which 'were . eagerly seized on; -»can-d. their contents devoured by torchlight, it beinir already dark when they arrived. Throughout . the . remaining months of their detention, Maxwell continued the staunch friend of the captives, and it seems that they were chiefiv indebted to his ingenuity and perseverance for their ultimate release. But there were some m the company whose strength could not hold out during: the. weary period of hope deferred that now followed. The first to give m was an Italian sailor, Loscocco. of whose illness and. death a pathetic account is given by Mr Bradley-. The noor fellow died on the 33rd of March; and the spot chosen for his grave was destined to become the centre of - A LITTLE CEMETERY of seven craves, which the survivors after reverently fenced m and adorned with a somewhat elaborately executed cross. The second death was. that of Fowler, one of the firemen. He was seized with a choleraic attack on the 19th of May, and after, a, night of great suffering, became unconscious, and so passed quietly away. Two days later, the carpenter,. Wells, was stricken ''•down, .and quickly carried off by the same, disease. On the 25th of May, a fourth grave was closed over the remains of another of the men, William* Armstrong. On the 80th, the chief engineer was reported ill ; but lie managed to pull through ; and on the Ist of Juno, all hands are spoken of as fairly well. Ten days later a fireman, named Gerraty, died very suddenly. Having ta,ken a cup of coffee m the morning, he was seized with cramp, and m two hours was dead. Thus, m throe weeks, four men had been carried off, ma-kin. s. with the Italian who bad died m March, five altogether. For two months there was a respite ; then the disease reappeared, and within a few days three men were AT DEATH'S DOOR. One, a" German sailorf recovered ; but the oth«r two, Bibby and Murray expired on the same day, the 21st : of August. So tedious had been the negotiations for their release, and. so terrible and swift the blows that death had dealt them, that we need not wotider if, at times, the little bo,nrl almost lost" hope. On the 23rd of .August, the Pegasus was again cruising off the shore, and Maxwell subiujticc* an ultimatum to the rajah. Terms were agreed on, the only question remaining being as to the mode of carrying them out. Naturally .Maxwell and the commander of the Pegasus wished to see the men on board before paying THE STIPULATED RANSOMMONEY ; |on the other hand, the rajah was no less anxious to handle the cash before he relaxed, bis grasp upon the j captives. Finally, an Italian sailor-, who was sick, being sent on board, 2000 dollars were paid down for him ; then it was arranged that the

firemen and sailors should be released, while the three mates, the chief engineer, "and Bradley remained as hostages' till the rest of the money, ' 38,000 dollars, was forthcoming. ; And so the affair was ended* • " A toilsome.march brought the captives once more upon the scene of their first misfortunes. They saw the remains of the Nisero, just ten months after they" abandoned her ; they slept once mqre m the old hut that had been their first shelter m Sumatra ;» they feasted their eyes on the. English man-of-war and her two Dutch companions that lay at anchor m a sheltered bay. Then, at length, they were welcomed by Maxwell, Commander Bickford, and the whole party were. got on board the Pegasus. Thus ended the TEN MONTHS' CAPTIVITY ot the crew of the Nisero. On the 14th of September, the Pegasus arrived at Penang. There the men were lodged m a ward of the hospital, and it was arranged that they should go aboard the Ajax, "one of Messrs Holt's liners. On the 22nd of September they sailed from Penang. The 27th saw the Ajax off Point de Galle, and on the tith of October, Aden was passed. They were m the Canal on the 11th, and by the 24th were meeting the Atlantic rollers m the Bay of Biscay. Mr Bradley thus concludes his lively and graphic narrative" :— r "At eleyeii _ v!clock on Saturday, October 25, we arrived m Portland Harbor, and our eventful vovagings came to a close. We had left Liverpool on the 12th June of the year before. In the fifteen months we had gained the sympathy of two nations, and seen adventures enough to last us for, a lifetime."