A Sea Story of the Early Sixties.

Southland Times, Issue 19471, 26 November 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Sea Story of the Early Sixties.

The 'iPenny Magazine" (London) has published some interesting matter connected with the loss of the "Graf ton," which set sail from Sydney, New South Wales, on 12th November, 1863, and was wrecked among: the Auokland Islands". There, as is well' known, the crew lived for eighteen months' Robihs'on Crusoe fashion, and as amplifying the "account of this Mr. Julian Sarpy has .sent the paper named a letter which is so interesting that we may be forgiven for quotit: " Although but a lad at the time, I remember well my trip with the: pilot, on the 'Graf ton,' even to his last words to Captain Musgrave on leaving the vessel to return to Sydney. They were, ' God speed you, gentlemen, and take care; we shall soon have a southerly buster.' The 'Grafton' was bound for Campbell Island, the expedition having been equipped to" search for a tin mine which my grandfather, Mr. Thomas Underwood, chief clerk in the Surveyor General's Office in Sydney, had discovered there some years before. My father, Mr. Charles Sarpy, in conjunction with a partner, Mr. Mnsgrave, who was uncle of Thomas Murgrave, the captain of the ' Grafton ,' financed the expedition, and if the tin mine was not found Captain Musgrave was under orders to fill np with a cargo of seals, the oil and skins of wbioh would result in a profitable voyage. F. E. Baynal, who occupied the position of mate in' the crew, was really a mining prospector, and engaged because of that qualification. By birth he was a Frenchman, born; in the same town as my father, namely, Moissao (Tarne-et-Garonne). Captain Musgrave hailed from America, and the other three members of the crew wore Alexander" MacLarren, a Norwegian ; Henry Forges, a Portuguese; and George Harris, an English- 4 .rnflni :\. Two other men shown in the photograph were pilots, whose names I have forgotten; The ' Grafton' reached Ganipbell Island, after a very .stormy voyage on De-' cember Ist; search was made for the tin mine without success, and the vessel with five seals (a most disappointing capture) set sail for Sydney, but was wrecked in the I Southern Bay of Auckland Islalnda. ' Months j passing, and nothing being heard of the 1 Grafton ' or its crew, application was made 1 by the owners of the vessel to Commodore! Wiseman, then commanding the fleet on thej Australian Station, to send a ship in search: of the missing boat, but this was refused on the ground . that if the crew had been castaway, so long a time had elapsed that the men could not possibly be alive, llaynalj the mate, was more clever in his resources of overcoming difficulties (ho had spent eleven years in different Australian mining; camps) even than was represented in the' story you published, and this is corroborated by the articles manufactured by him which are now to be seen in the Melbourne Museum. He made a pair of blacksmith's bellows of seal-skin, a pair of boats from the' same material, tanning the skin, and a needle from the bone of an albatross wing; In addition there is shown apiece of tanned sealskin, and the journal kept by CaptainMusgrave, 'Castaway at the Auckland Isles.' "