Untitled

Otago Witness, Issue 929, 18 September 1869, Page 10

THE BURNING OF THE BLUE JACKET.

One of the survivors, in a letter published iuthe London Standard of July Bth, gives an account of this disaster. , The, letter is dated from Port Stanley,, Falkland Islands, April 29fcb, The following is the writer's account of what took place after the ship' was abandoned :— -** In tho port Jifeboat , there .were Mr Williams and his watch. In the starboard boat, Mr Bell and his watch. I was in the yacht. The other boats left the Bhip a little before us,, for we could not prevail upon the captain- for, some time to leave the ship, and ,1 do aot think he would have left her if he had not promised the ladies that he would take charge of them. He. said he did not, like to leave the old ship. So we cut' away and- drifted clear of the ship. About an. hour after we, left the, foremast fell over the side j half an hour afterwards the main and mizen followed , its, . example, /with a heavy crash. The vessel was then in one mass of flames— it was a splendid and fearful sight to witness, We kept as near the ship as possible, thinking a vessel might see the fire and bear down to her ; but, there was no snoh luok. ■ Next day, there was a dead qakn, and, Mr Williams, came on board the j yacht,) so we straightened up the boat a little, and made things more comfortable. In the evening the captain told me to go to the mate's boat, and Mr Williams to stay in the yacht. Soon after dusk a breeze sprung up, and was increasing ail night. We kept together all night by means of lanterns, whioh we held up every now ani then. Next morning the other two boats were well ahead ; the breeze was still increasing, and in two hours' time we picked them up. We passed the usual compliments. All was going ou well. Mr Williams did not make any sign to come into his boat again, so when the captain gave us the course to the Falkland Islands we went on to see if we could pick the other boat up. Before we could see her the yacht was out of sight. When we came up to the second mate's boat we both lowered our sails and hove-to, , for the yacht to get up to us again. While we were waiting we had dinner, whioh consisted of about a quarter of a pound of preserved meat, a very few bits of biscuit (which had got spoilt with salt water coming into the boat), and not quite two gills of water. We had a pretty good supply of provisions and water, but we knew not how long we would have to bo in the boat before we were picked up or reaohed land. We waited there some time, but no yacht was to be seen, and we were losing the fair wind, so we asked Mr Bell if he was going to wait any longer. He said, "No." With that answer, we hoisted oar sail and started ; but up to the time we lost sight of him he had not moved. We still went on, but during the night the wind shifted round right dead against us ; so we steered for the main land, as it was impossible for us to reach the islands. We never saw either of the boats after that. There were 15 of us in one boat, there were 27 adults and seven children in the yacht, and the rest with Mr Bell, second mate. I have no doubt father would recollect the brown dog that Ux had. It was in our boat. Six days after we loft the ship, we killed it, drank the blood, and ate the flesh. Six days after that was the commencement of the horrors of a castaway crew. One of the boys out of two died through drinking salt water. Wo managed to keep it from him during tho daytime, but at night ho would get it. He waa out of his mind about 11 hours before ho died. We buriod the poor lad as well as we oould under the circumstances. Wo read tho burial service for the dead at sea, but we had nothing to sink him with. It was a painful ta«k, but it was the will of God. We prayed to the Almighty in that boat with moo earnestness than any of us had ever dono before. We could see death staring us in the face. Day after day no land, no vessel. Five days after the boy died wo lost the carpenter and a seaman. The latter, poor fellow, died from utter dobility and old age. The carpenter, who was a fine tall man, over six feet, diod from drinking salt water. They were both Roman Catholics. Tho carpenter has left a wife, with four or five ohildren, to mourn their loss. Two days after another man diod raving mad, through salt water ; ho was tbo hoalthicaMookiog man in the boat.

Thero wore two othora (tho sailmakor and oao so&tnan) out of their mind. Wo expected thoy would bo going off at any moment. Noxt day n,otbin.; in sight; wo thought tho Almighty hxd brought us thoro to broatho our Fast ; wo had broakfast, which wm ouo sardine, some biscuit that wo had to squeezo to got tho salt water out, and abouc two tableapoonfuls of wator. I forgot to toll you that, about ton days after leaving tho ship, our fcoi bocaroo so painful with frostbito that wo had to cut our hoots off, tho pain was bo excruciating. For my part, I was inclined to drink unit water to put an end to mylifo, for what with tho hunger, tho thirst, and tho p*in in my fco*, I no*rly wont mad ; in fnoti ono af tornoon for a fow hour* I was out of my mind, thoy all said they thought 1 would go off. After wo had bad i reakfaat, all tho provisions wo had left wm a small. box of sardines, plenty of spoilt brood, and about ono gallon of wntor, There was a light brcczo, and a littlo after 12 o'clock ono of the men shouted out " Sail oh ! " Wo all for tho moment forgot onr wonknoM and patn, and jumped up, and thoro wm a barque bearing down npon «■ ; wo ware soon alonmldo of hor, and wore hauled up the side, for wa wore as helpless as ohildren, I forgot to tell yon that we had saved thro* boxes of cold from tho ship, value L 10,000. When ho found wo bad gold h» go! In » frightful ng*. Ho pat tho bo*Ur*i»

iirirons and 1 two seani'en^ alSb^anlf -chained them down-men thattwefe^not able to lift a pound weight • atid sevefaltimea he threat' enedtotake the .boatswain's life. We jußt got sufficient food to keep us alive, and that was all. Well, these islands were the nearest place. , The Almighty blest us with a fair wind. We arrived here on the Sunday. The captain and a passetiger he had with him went on shore and reported that" he had picked up some wrecked sailors, and from what he could make out we had murdered i every one on board and then set fire to the I ship and taken the gold and left her. When the; doctor ! came ' on board lie ordered the irons to be taken off and to give us plenty of wine., Next day (Monday) we were all brought on shore and put into houses. Before I go further I must tell you that three more died on board the barque, leaving eight of us to tell the tale, ' Five ' of the men's feet had got nearly well; but the engineer, the boy, and myself, we're the worst cases. We three are in a house by ourselves, the engineer chiefly from bad sores and weakness, the' boy suffers with the frostbite in his feet! he has lost each of his little toe's. lam suffering from one foot, but I am sorry to aay that all my toes have rotted off. Had we not had a clever doctor l r should have lost my foot altogether. We have an old pensioned soldier to attend to us, and a more suitable person we could not have had. We have every attention and kindness paid us. Those that were strong enough were examined the next day. It took three days to examine three men. Then they heard what the captain and his chief mate had to say. The next day our three men were cross-ex-amined, and proved themselves to be innocent. The captain got into such a rage, because he could not bring it in against us, that he nearly committed himself. If he had not cleared out quickly with his vessel, the people in the place would have killed him when thoy knew we were innocent. They examined the rest of us afterwards. There in a transport ship expected in every day. She ia bringing out the relieving troops, and will take those that are here home in her. She will either go to .Plymouth or to Woolwich."