THE SOLE SURVIVOR.

Otago Witness, Issue 1915, 3 August 1888, Page 31

THE SOLE SURVIVOR.

Instances are not few of a solitary individual — bearing apparently a charmed life — out of hundreds who perish around him, alone escaping to tell the tale. Everyone has read of the British force which entered the Kyber Pass, and of which one man only came out alive. A small force of British troops sent to punish a tyrannical ruler in the island of Ceylon were led into an ambuscade, and it was thought all had perished until a sergeant appeared in quite an unexpected manner, having undergone perils and hardships compared with which Robinson Crusoe's life may be said to have been one of luxurious ease.

But it is in the records of shipwreck and disaster at sea that this favoured individual the most frequently turns up, to astonish his relations and friends with an account of his preservation.

The ship Dalhonsie foundered off Beachy Head on the 19th October 1853, with ' passengers and crew numbering 60 souls, of which number a' seaman named Reed alone escaped the general fate. When the ship went down he climbed the mizenmast, and then swam to some timber which was floating about. While his companions in the water perished one by one around him, he contrived to cling to his frail support for several hours, until at length a brig hove in sight, and bore down towards the struggling seaman. His signal of distress, a handkerchief feebly waved in the air, was seen, and he was shortly afterwards dragged aboard in an almost senseless condition. i On the night of the 20fch August 1857 the alarming cry of "breakers ahead" was heard on board the clipper ship Dunbar, bound from Plymouth for Sydney, and then close to her haven. In spite of all efforts the ship struck, and soon went to pieces. A man named Johnson, who was below and prevented by the inrush of water from reaching the deck in the ordinary way, got through the skylight and was climbing up the side of the- chain-plates of the fore-rigging when they broke, and he was thrown into the water. Fortunately a small portion of the woodwork remained in his hand, to which he clung tenaciously,' and after being tossed about until rendered almost unconscious, he was cast on to a shelf of rock, from whence, ap morning dawned, he beheld the wreck, and the bodies of his late shipmates. He shouted to attract attention, but many hours elapsed before he was seen by the people who had gathered to the heights above to witness the effects of the storm. A rope was lowered, and, lashing it round his body, he was drawn up a distance of 200 ft, and received by his rescuers with a shout of joy, after having been on the rock 30 hours. With this exception the whole of the passengers and crew, numbering 112, perished.

A remarkable escape was that of Henry F. Jelly, a cabin passenger on the Pacific, which sailed from Victoria on Thursday, the 4th November 1875, and foundered the same evening 40 miles south of Cape Flattery. Jelly was in bed, when a sudden and heavy shock hurled him from his couch, and induced him to rush upon deck, where he heard that the vessel had been in collision. Efforts to lower the boats met with ne success, except in the case of the port boat, which was got into the water, but overturned immediately. Jelly climbed on to the keel, and assisted several others to do the same. When the ship went down, Jelly, with another man, left the boat and swam to the pilot-house, which had become detached from the vessel and was floating, and to which he lashed himself and his companion, who, however, soon succumbed to the effects of his submersion. Jelly was picked up after two days' battle with the elements, but the rest of the 160 passengers, and the whole of the crew, were the victims of this disaster.

The barque Maria, from Doboy for Dublin, encountered, shortly after leaving port, a series of squalls, and subsequently a hurricane. She became water-logged, her boats were washed away, and her pumps choked. The crew took to the rigging, and two days afterwards a vessel passed so close that they read the name, City of Montreal, quite plainly, but it passed on without rendering any assistance. On the third day an Italian barque also passed, but on account of the roughness of the weather could give no succour. By this time all the food which could be got at on the water-logged vessel had been consumed, and the captain and several sailors soon died from starvation, the remainder being driven by the pangs of hunger to subsist on their bodies. The boatswain and a young man named McLinden alone remained alive, when an American vessel came to the rescue. The boatswain died four hours after being taken on board, but McLinden, although in a terrible condition, his body so swelled by exposure that his olothes had to be cut off, recovered, and was taken to Africa, from whence he went to Madeira, and ultimately arrived in Liverpool on board the British and African mail steamer Gambia, on February 24, 1877.

When the Hamilton was lost on the Gun Fleet Sand, near Hawick, the crew got into a boat and left the vessel just before she went to pieces. But in endeavouring to make the shore the boat was swamped, and only one of the occupants succeed ed in reaching the land.

The John Rutledge, which left Liverpool for New York on the 16th January 1856, with 119 passengers, when a month out collided with an iceberg, with the result that she was soon a complete wreck. Five boats were lowered, four of which were filled with passengers and crew. The fifth broke adrift after 13 persons had entered, leaving several people to go down with the ship. The first four boats were never heard of again, but the other, after tossing about for 10 days, was seen by the look-out of the steamer Germania, and its sole living occupant rescued. The remainder had perished from the combined effects of cold and starvation.

Terrible fate befell a number of Chinese emigrants who were wrecked on the Island of Rossel, on the 30th September 1856. They landed safely on the island, and the captain, with eight of the crew, took a boat and went in search of assistance. They were shortly afterwards picked up, and a steamer despatched to the island. During the interval sounds of high revelry were heard on the island, and when the rescuing party arrived there was but one Chinaman to take away, the rest, to the number of 326, having been massacred and eaten by the natives.