HORRIBLE SUFFERING AT SEA.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3342, 10 November 1871, Page 3

HORRIBLE SUFFERING AT SEA.

107 DAYS ON A WRECK. One of the most distressing stories of shipwreck and horrible suffering at sea which has recently been heard of was brought to light by the steamer Moses Taylor on her last downward voyage from San Francisco to Honolulu with the New Zealand mails. We are indebted to Mr A. G. Horton, of Canterbury, who was a passenger by the Moses Taylor at the time of the rescue of the captain of the water- logged vessel, for the following particulars of the sad event, and the terrible sufferings and death of those on board : — On the morning of Thursday, the 18th October, when about 500 miles from Honolulu, there could be seen from the deck of the steamer Moses Taylor, a vesseljrpparenily bearing down for "*"ffJPMflffi?iu, and this fact caused no little speculation among the passengers as to the precise object of the ship in wishing to communicate with the steamer. As the vessel approached nearer, it was soon seen that she was a brig with only one mast, and that the sea was washing clean over her, and, moreover, that signals of distress were flying at the foremast. Of course, under such circumstances, a boat was at once placed in readiness for the purpose of going on board to render assistance. The brig was running before the wind, and as she approached still nearer, every glass was brought into use, but no sign of life on board could be discovered. She was under a foretopsail, reefed, and hadher jib set, as well as a piece of the foresail, which was blowing about. A sort of canvaß house was likewise ob served where the crew had evidently lived for some time in the maintop. This was the appearance of the vessel when within a few hundred yards of the steamer. A boat was soon lowered, manned by five sailors and the second officer of the Moses Taylor, when it at once proceeded alongside the brig at the bows, and two of the men scrambled on board and ran up the rigging to the foretop. There they found do one — not even a dead body — and could not discover the name of the vessel. This fact they shouted to the men in the boat, when a human figure was seen to creep out of some canvas on the deck of the forecastle, and was heard to exclaim, " God Almighty ! Am I saved ?" He was too weak to stand or walk, and was at once assisted into the boat. The men searched the forward part of the ship, where the sea was not breaking over, but could find no one else, and, on being^interrogated, the rescued man said he was the only survivor out of twelve persons, and that the brig had been water-logged for 107 days. Be begged hard for a drink of water when in the boat, but this was very properly denied him, and when he was received on board the Moses Taylor he was at once placed in the hands of the doctor. After the second day, when the man had sufficiently recovered to be able to sit up and talk, he related one of the most melancholy and distressing stories of privation and suffering probably ever told by human tongue, some of the facts of which can scarcely be published. The particulars he gave were, in substance, as follows : — The American brig Shelehoff, 250 tons, left San Francisco for Callao on the 22nd of June, with a cargo of lumber, besides a small quantity of rice and starch, in charge of the rescued man, Captain Hopken, a German, of about thirty five years of age, and a crew of seven men, and four passengers — making a total of twelve souls in all on board. All went well until the evening of the 3rd July, when they were caught in a cyclone, in lat. 16 N., and long. 117 W. The Captain states that be went on deck about 11 o'clock, and ordered more sail to be taken in, but before the order could be executed heavy seas washed over the brig, and they were compelled to cut away the mainmast. On leaving San Francisco the brig had a very heavy deck cargo of lumber, and some of this was thrown overboard as soon as the cyclone struck her, but before much could be done the passengers and crew were compelled to take to the rigging. They had not been in the fore-top many minutes when'a tremendous sea swept over the brig, carrying away the bulwarks, sweeping overboard the remaining lumber, the boat, and, in fact, everything on deck. When the sea moderated a little it was found that the brig was full of water, and that she had a large hole in her stern. The captain, who appears to have been a very thoughtful and strongminded man, called all on board around him, and after explaining to them his position, took away all their knives and threw them overboard. To each man he gave a few pieces of biscuit out of two or three pounds which had been Bayed. The whole of the other biscuit on board was unfortunately soaked with salt water, and not a drop of fresh water was saved, except in casks below which could not be got at. Prom the morning of the 4th of July until the morning of the 9th, no one on board tasted water, and on that day the first death occurred — the chief officer expiring about mid-day. Before death he went raving mad, and had to be tied up to the foremast. On the 9th July a little rain fell, and hope revived again, the sailors and officers relating to each other stories of men having survived for thirty and forty days in an open boat. Ak-this time too, each man was gwan .a piece of sheepskin — used for chafing gear — wherewith to catch the heavy dew which falls in the tropics, and the sucking of the wool, together with occasional showerp, kept life in them for a period. At the same time they managed to make fish-hooks out of a piece of old wire, and were thus enabled to keep a tolerable supply of fish, But all on board soon commenced to suffer terribly from sourvy, their teeih falling out, and their faces, in some cases, being almost eaten away. Hope, however, did not for a long time desert them, and they managed to

steer the vessel from the foretop by means of ropes attached to the rudder, which had not been carried away. They were, however, unfortunately without a compass or a chart, aud could not make for any of the islands about, so their only hope rested in falling in with some vessel. Thirty, forty, and sixty days passed by, and yet no reMef came. Then a second death occurred, Andrew Larsen, a seaman, either falling or jumping overboard on the Oth September. On the 22nd September, one of the passengers — Clawell — died in a dolirious state in the foretop of starvation. Another sailor soon afterwards died for want of water, but the remaining eight persons all lived to see the month of October come in. During the time that had passed, three vessels had been seen, but none of them was very near. Some time between the 4th and Bth of October a barque was seen and came quite close to the water-logged brig — so close indeed that Captain Hopken asserts most positively they could see a female figure in a black and red shawl on board — but the master passed by without stopping to render assistance. The name of the vessel could not be distinguished, but she is believed to have been an American one, judging by her rig and shape. The poor feeble sufferers on board the brig made every signal that could be made — waving their hands and old pieces of canvas, but the inhuman monster entrusted with the command of the vessel showed no compassion for those in distress, and went by without sending a boat to see what they required. Then it was that the hearts of those on board sank within them, and so soon as " hope" deserted them they died off most rapidly. From the time the barque passed by in sight of the distressed, to the 18th October when the Moses Taylor fell in with the brig — some twelve to sixteen days — seven men succumbed — most of them going mad. Before this, however, they had become so weak and so emaciated that they could not steer the vessel, and could not go up and down the rigging. j When a dead body had to be consigned to the sea it was rolled on to the deck and washed overboard, those on board being too weak to lift it. The vigorous and the strong, of course, survived the longer, one of the passengers, named Crane living, until Monday, 15th October. Captain Hopken was then the only one left. For three days and three nights he lived on the forecastle deck, and at length was unable to get to the bag of fish hanging to the rigging, The dreariness of being alone on (he wreck, of spending hour after hour in solemn silence, of " hope deferred," and at last that hope lost in despair, all combined to bring the only survivor to the determination of putting an end to his great privation and suffering. He was dozing when the steamer's boat went alongside, and was resting for the purpose of gaining strength to undergo the exertion of dissolving a piece of bluestone in a bottle of ink that he had saved, for the purpose of poisoning himself. JBut Providence had ordained it otherwise. There is no doubt that Captain Hopken must have possessed an iron constitution. He weighed about 2251bs when he left San Francisco, and when rescued he weighed only 1401bs. It is also wonderful how clear a record he kept of the days and dates. In a canvas satohell, which wus brought on board, was an almanac, with various crosses and marks to show how long they had been on the wreck, and the dates on which the various persons on board had died. In a small phial was also a sheet of foolscap paper with the following particulars written on it in ink : — " American brig Shelehoff, of San Francisco, was water-logged on the 3rd July, 1871, in a hurricane, in 16 N. and 117 W. Was afloat to September, (look in Almanac). Captain Hopken, San Francisco ; mate, T. Johnston, Schleswig Holstein ; second mate, James M'Carthy, Port Patrick, Scotland; steward, P. Dunn, San Francisco. Seamen — Lavadore Police, Silecia ; Mitchell Veago, Calabria ; Andrew Larssen, Sweden ; L. Lewis, Nessen, Germany. "Passengers: Ashley Crane, San Francisco ; Charles Davis, San Franciao ; Charles Kurty, Germany ; Bartholomew Clawell, Germany, "Written onboard the brig Shelehoff, on Monday, September, 10th, 1871. We have suffered hard, hunger^ and thirst. Crew, passengers, and officers, beg to send this to California, and publish it in the paper."