WRECK OF STRATHMORE

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15040, 13 September 1922, Page 7

WRECK OF STRATHMORE

A DIP INTO THE PAST.

SURVIVORS’ TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

The death of the last survivor of the wreck ol' the Strathmore, in the person of Mr Walter Sparks Smith, of Palmerston North (says the Standard), recalls a stirring chapter in the record of perils and disasters at sea. In many respects the wreck of the Strathmore was remarkable. She was a line iron clipper of 1472 tons and left Gravesend for Otago on April 19, 1875. Month after month passed away, and she did not reach her destination. ‘No news ol' her could be collected anywhere, and at length she was given up as lost, having gone down, it was supposed, with all hands, not a single soul escaping to tell the tale. Great was the surprise, therefore, when in March, 1876, it was unexpectedly ascertained that the conjecture was only half true; that the vessel indeed had been lost, but that the crew and passengers had in great part been preserved.

Marooned for Seven Months.

It transpired that on July 1, 1875, the Strathmore struck upon one of the rocks which form the Grozet Islands, in the Indian Ocean, south-east of the Gape of Good Hope, and that on the 21st January in the following year the survivors of her crew and passengers were discovered and released from their terrible detention. The long interval was very trying. Water was the one thing which they found in abundance. Food, shelter and fire were not so easily obtained; yet in the severe climate of the Crozets shelter and lire were scarcely less necessary than food. Of the 89 souls on board the Strathmore, 40 were lost at the time of the wreck and 49 made their escape from the sea to the barren rocks of the Crozets. Of these live proved unable to endure the privations to which they were exposed. The survivors saved but little from the wreck; only a small quantity of firewood, some matches, a few biscuits, some wine, some tins of confectionery—the poorest possible provision for 4"9 human beings during a period of nearly seven months. Seabirds, weeds and water —these were all the Crozets produced. There were no waving palms, no nutritious breadfruit trees—none of the precious trees and shrubs and plants that gladdened Robinson Crusoe’s existence. The boats in which the survivors escaped, which should have been of such inllnite value, had been left soon after tiie landing in charge of a couple of sailors, who lost them, it is supposed, during a night’s debauch. The whole party was thus obliged to remain on the island rock and subsist on rank bird flesh and birds’ eggs, with their oily skins for firing and partly for clothing. The small stock of biscuits was chivalrously reserved for Hie one lady who had been rescued from the wreck.

Day After Day

Day aflei' day they ale their scanty meals and looked out across the broad waters for some coming sail, for the ship which was to rescue them from their ocean prison. In the course of time the survivors on the island divided into six camps; an arrangement which secured a tolerable degree of peace and orderliness. No one seems to have acted as leader, however; each did what appeared good in his own eyes, and the most undoubted communistic notions of properly prevailed. All the bad characters seemed to keep together. The survivors built up a tower of turf to tire height of about 12 feet, and put an oar on lop, and when they saw ships they used to signal with blankets. In all they saw four ships, two of which were very close. The fifth took them off, but in the meanwhile the meagre diet and the terrible cold affected the weaker members of the ship-wrecked party, and live of them died.

Knives, forks and spoons, as well as a couple of parasols, had been discovered in ttie blanket chest washed ashore. The wires of the parasols made excellent needles. They were cut off at the point of junction at the top of the parasol; their ends were sharpened, and thus they were converted into sewing implements. With these the castaways stitched together fhe penguins’ skins, using grass for thread. In this connection the late Mr Smith, having been saiimaker on board the Strathmore, rendered yeoman service.

The ship that rescued the survivors was an American whaler, the Young Phoenix. On January 20 she transferred 20 of them to the Sierra Morena, Captain Kennedy, who landed them at Dalle (Ceylon) on February 2 1 of Ihe same year. Tims ended one of the most romantic of maritime disasters.