TRAGEDIES-OF THE SEA.

NZ Truth, Issue 147, 11 April 1908, Page 8

TRAGEDIES- OF THE SEA.

PROUD BATTLESHIP INVINCIBLE

Founders m the North Sea.

WINDS SHRIEK THE DIRGE OF 400 MEN.

The Sinking Frederick Scalla Meets the Drifting F. J. Merryman*

IN THE NICK OF TIME.

"Where the wide Atlantic boils Like a cauldron, vainly toils A lone ship. From various soils .Came her pirate crew and spoils. i l£a f a flash ot light ■ From a' thunder, cloud's dark, crown .Strikes the hull': Hbrase breezes drown ' Prayers; and curses ; the heavens frown, : And the ravening sea sucks down Prey she deems her right. — M.' Saxbyi Qne of the most disastrous shipwrecks that has happened on the British coasts was that of the old line-of-battle ship Invincible, which foundered off the coast of Norfolk on March 'I#, 1801. Tlie Invincible was a *-'-.?4?-gun ship, and carried a crew of about 600 hands, , with a few passengers, and of ' all these only 195 were saved. Early on the Monday morning she set sail from Yarmouth for Prymouth Sound, to Join the fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde I Packer. \ All went well till two | o'clock m the afternoon of the same ; day, when the Invincible struck on a ■ saridbank m the North Sea. Here she beat violently for a couple of hours,, when her masts were out away and she immediately got intp deep water. Her . anchor was then cast, and the cre^r thought themselves safe, for, notwithstanding she leaked considerably, the water was kept under easily enough. HER GUNS OF DISTRESS were heard and answered by a cutter, which bore oft to^ Yarmouth to a;ive intelligence of the calamity. And now the crew hoped, with the assistance that .should arrive, to be able to save the ship as well as themselves. But it was not to be. The. rudder being., unfortunately p-one, tbe Invincible became unmanageable, and m the evening she again drove on the sandbank, when all bands gave themselves up for lost. At this awful juncture, however, a fishing smack approached tlie wreck, on which two boats belonging to the Invincible were got out. Chi board one of these the Admiral, the nurser, four midshipmen, three pf the Admirals servants, and six ' or eight seamen reached the smack m safety, a_ also did the other boat full of people. Both of them immediately returned to the ship, but on reapproaching the smack ono of the boats was forced away, and every person ; it contained would have perished had not a collier, which happened to be passing to windward at the critical se omen t, happily picked them up This collier a_terwa_ds . was the means of saving the lives of many of the crew. The fishing smack, with the Admiral on board, being unable to afford the least assistance to the Invincible, remained- at anchor during the whole of Monday night.

On the approach of day, the master • ;of the smack EXPRESSED HIS UNWILLINGNESS' ■ to go any nearer the wreck, but Ad- . nairal Totty, m dire opposition Vto ; him, caused the cable to be cut, and hastened over towards the ship- Melancholy, however, tp relate, the tni yincfble once more got into deep water, and gradually sank. While , the ship was thus going down, the ' launch was hove to, and as many /of the seamen, as she could possibly hold instantly jumped overboard, and - had only time to clear the Poop when tbe once proud Invimeible entirely disappeared, carrying with her above ; -Od souls. A number of the unhappy I sufferers attempted to get on board r tbe already otferladfen launch, but;' as no mole ' cPULd' be permitted tp' i enter without the certain loss : of the whole, they were struck ofi with the' oars, and m a few minutes became wholly engulfed m THE ROUGH SEA RUNNING. Captain Rennie, after the Iruvincible i had sunk, attempted to swim tp the launch, and, after a severe exertion, got within reach of the oars, when exhausted by lati#uo and unable to make any further effort, he. calmly resigned bim'self to his fate. Liftingup Ms bands and afterwards placing them upon his face, he went dcwn without another struggle. All the other officers of the ship, except •Lieutenants Tucker and Quash, together with the officers of marines and most of their men, likewise went to the bottom. About 70 or 80 of the crew were saved by means of the launch. ' The disaster was attributed solely to the ignorance of the pilot, but, as he was drowned with the others m charge, m common charity he was supposed to have expiated all his faults. When the mizzen-mast went overboard, "he also fell from the deck, and was never afterwards seen. * * ' - * Probably no stranger coincidence ever occurred than that which brought the ships Frederick Scalla, and the F. J. Merryman together m mid-ocean, each to afford to the other the help that was so urgently needed at the moment. In September, 1884, the Frederick Scalla, bound from Stettin, Prussia, to New. Yprk, with a cargo of salt, encountered a furious gale m midAtlantic. She was dismasted, her rudder and boats carried, away, and her hull left, roiling helplessly m the TROUGPI OF A RAGING SEA. Her started timbers let m water, and it seemed but a question of time how long the vessel would float; Fortunately, the nature of her cargo delayed the fatal issue, The crew pf eleven men worked hard at the pumps, and the salt, dissolved into brine by the action of the incoming water, was gradually discharged, thus lightening the vessel considerably. - t _ But the end Was only postponed. After nine* days of incessant toil, the men were practically exhausted • there was four feet of water m the hold, and it did not seem possible that the vessel could be kept afloat many hours longer. Captain Hofischied and his tired-out crew had well-nigh abandoned hope. The last day had come. The Frederick Scalla was |IN A SINKING CONDITION, When suddenly the weather, after being thick and foggy during the morning, cleared up a' little and revealed a large brig at no great distance: But evidently there was something ' wrong with her. There were signs of confusion aloft, and no living creature was to be seen on deck. What could it all mean? The Germans, unable to ccntrol their vessel, and destitute of boats, had to await the chances of the wind driving the strange vessel within/ haU m order to solve the mystery of her abandoned ghost-like appearance. But the F. J. Merrvman had a tragic voyage as well. She bad sailed from Boston, Mass., bound for Sierra Leone with a general cargo, her company consisting of eighteen all told. Sierra Leone was duly reached, the cargo discharged, and the brig proceeded to Bathurst, on the West African Coast. On her arrival, the mate and a sailor were seized with fever. They died, hut the authorities prohibited the crewfrom landing m order to bury the bodies, nor were they permitted to drpp them overboard. Others ofthe

crew sickened, and, as a last resource, natives were hired to ROW THE DEAD, BODIES OUT, TO SEA, and drop them overboard. Such, however, was the panic ashore, that when these natives had done their iwork, the people would not let them land, and the brig's people were forced to keep and feed them on board Hfor thirty days, ■ I-ventually the men's health improved, and the F. 3. Merryman was .-allowed to enter Bathurst. and receive a cargo of hides. Hands were Wanted to replace those who had died, but no one was found willing .to ship m a vessel that was regarded as plague-stricken..- At last a native; .'AJfoicaai was induced to sign articles, .and with this one substitute the brig' set sail. •But the unfortunate vessel had not been many days at sea, when tbe malady again broke out. First the captain was seized with fever and| - died, and within ten days of his ■ death the i second mate, a Swede, perished. Thus the only m^n on board capable of navigating the ship werp gone. There was a man ' j DIED FROM FEAR;. I he said he was sure he would be the next to be seized by the fever which so scared. him that he sickened at once and died. As fast as the crew died they were thrown overboard m their clothes; there was no room for sentiment m the face cf a malady that had desolated the brig, so that, m a few weeks, tbe only survivors were two negroes and two. white men. ~ --. Sickness and anxiety had wasted these survivors until they were too feeble to haul* upon a rope, or to even I turn the wheel. In this manner day. after day passed, when one morning a vessel was sighted which was taken to be a • steamer without masts. This proved to be the Prussian barqueTrederick Scalla, and thus m the most extraordinary manner were / '; two vessels brought together, one' sinking, the other helpless for want of men, and each, therefore, calculated to serve the other IN HER DIRE EXTREMITY. Gradually the two vessels drifted towards each other till they were not more than a couple of hundred yards apart. . The Germans examined with wonder the apparently abandoned ciaft. While they were looking a woolly head appeared over the bulwark rail, and a negro was seen savutinising the wreck of the barque. The black face vanished, but the African presently reappeared, accompanied by another negro and a white, man. All three fell to work to run up a distress signal. This was, no doubt, regarded as superfluous labor by the sinking Germans, who bawled to the three men that their vessel was going down. The other replied by imploring Captain Hoffschied to send some hands and a navigator aboard the brig to take care of her, and steer her to port, otherwise THERE WAS NO CHANCE of their ever reaching land. Hofischied was astonished, and shouted for them to send to the barque as they had no boats left. But the answer 'was that the negroes and white men were too weak to steer the brig, let alone to lower and send a boat. However, when they saw that the brig was drifting away from possibly the last chance of rescue that might be ofiered, the three men, by extraordinary exertions, got a boat overboard, and, after a great deal of manoeuvring and many risks and narrow escapes, the whole of the people of the Frederick Scalla were transferred to the F. J. Merryman. The scuffling and singing out,, one to another, as the German crawled over ' the brig's side, brought up a fourth man from the cabin. (, His eyes Were on fire with fever, and his cheeks hollow with suffering. He joined the two negroes and the other white man, who were seated near Captain Hoffschied, and whilst the crew of the abandoned barque ran about making sail on the brig, the story of THEIR LUCKLESS VOYAGE WAS TOLD. The German barque still floated, and such provisions as could be got at were taken from her to revictual the brig, which was very badly ofi for food. Shortly after, the Frederick Scalla settled down m the water, and gave a final plunge. The F. J. Merryman was then got under way by her new crew, and Captain Hoffschied had the pleasure of bringing his strangly-acquired command safe to New York. "Truth is stranger than fiction," and this is an instance of a disaster at sea m which it was impossible to say which were the rescuers and which were the rescued.