The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-04-04 00:00:00

A TALE oF TIIE SEA.

Seldom has even the quiet and lonely sea furnishes!
• tale more remarkable, .us regards human suffering and
human enauranev, than that of tue emigrant ship
Strathmore. Ilie t easel —a line new clipper. in the
Amer dasian troile sailed frau London for New
Zealand on the 17th o: 1875, currying a general
car.o and e ghtv-eight souls, including inusseugers and
complement time passed, and waling was heard of
her. .ts months rolll,l on, "nil no ocrap of tidings
came Li, hand respecting the handsaw, ship, appre-
'tension deepened into eertaii ity. She was giecu, up
,f. .r het. al.aliwhile. the Strathmore,. dooniesi to •
different ena than that camel her cargo
• safely round the Cape and out in the tlreat Southern
ocean, ml hid gone on prosoerously enough. in spite
of an insuoordin els mei drunken crew until she reached
the erialabourhael of the I 'rout laLmUcls. The captain,
demi. by ("gay eiattwr, thought himself to the
• southward .4 these i- it.: but on the night of the
last as, f Jun. •th • t uly ran at full speed
, tipOn iftl4lll-r . iii r r .6. avid is it cu.ant Unlike con.
, fusion t.k the j.ls' 4 oti teuer or ler and ecatuan.
I ship h iii 'elore pre,. a .1. The first intimation of
danger votive) ti th • passzug.-rs was the frightful
• crash ana grinning if the ship, followed by the sok,.
of the captain crying that all w.as lost, and that each
must shift for hiniaelf. Were not this num the
amount which we receive id his behaviour wauld call
for the severest comments; bet he was among the first
to perish, overturned, apparently by the heavy evil, in
, the boat which he and his chief officer hastened to
launch. Many of the remaining people hail already
j been drowned in trying to estape or been wa.hel into
theses, including a whole family named ilieelliridge of
ten individuals. Thaw left iou bead clung b, the
upper rigging of the breaking ship, some id then, for
In" tie nineteen hoer, before the 'seas elute. lack
-nu ti,. ehore, and took them from their de.p•rate
n. It must be remembered that .lit.y at the
s w•itild lie the depth of whiter, awl the hitter
• • e ilurityr that prolonged exposUre Hied
• "use of the sufferers. Eventually the task of
• s eompleted to the extent of landing upon the
, nv ae forty- • all toll. thirty -nine
, • officer.. tail crew having perisheiL
t r the last num bad been taken from the
• •aJ ae.• •gi over into deep water, aml went ilown,
aviog ea vestige behind ; and all the stores which
these sub ippy people saved from her ou,naiiited of a few
easka "f liquor, some cases of preserves in tins, and a
burr-I of gunpowder. The island upi,n which our
samintrymen were thus cast is one of a gr alp the most
desolate in the world. No human being inhabits that
solitary archipel Lg., Ohich, lashed by teulmats and a
roiling never visited except by an adventurous
whaler. tui tap "ration of the place where they found
themselves All... Veil til it it WAS a guani and naked r k
• mile I nig, with a shore line ;ran five to six mil... in
extent, wi. hout trees or s •elter of any kind, and ex-
posed to tee full fury of the winter blasts and surf.
The boats were aii swamped, so that there was no
chin at of erausing to ails of the larger islands which
were ; and on this miserable speck of naked
reef hey ine-t stay, and try to exist. Happily there
. was fond a *pang of pure water which never failed
them and thus one great necessity of life was secured
Of f .1 they haul only a single source, and that was in
the imineuse quantity of sea-birds which frequented
spot. Thew e.gs were scattered on all sides, and
their young afford an easy prey, being so entirely un-
used to man that they and the parent birds could be
, captured with the bawl, or knocked over with a stick.
1 Food and drink being thus in a way provided for, the
Iself-help and sagaiaty of English breeding came out
better than in the evil hour of the wreck. 'fhe
survivors hoisted the mast of the lifeboat on an
eminence, with • blanket for • flag, and set a regular
• watch to signal any passing veseel. They ran_ up rude
shelters for the weaker ones first, including a lady and
her child. and afterwards wattage,' to put all hands
under some kind of oover. The people were divided
Into mesons, and arrati,ements were made fairly to
distribute the birds, the eggs, and whatever else canm
in to the general atm*. They utilised the tins, in which
the preierves were packed for cooking vessels, and,
, having found certain coarse greases anti wild herbs
growing upon the few flat portions of their wietched
1 territory, they boiled these, and so in all probability
I averted the danger of scurvy. For fuel they hail at
I first the broken planks of their boats and the packing
cases, lot this soon gave out, and the cold would have
probably killed many but for the discovery that the
fires could be kept up with the skins and bones
of the seadowl, which they must have captured
In extraordinary numbers, seeing that during the
six mouths of their stay upon the island
the curious fuel sufficed them for every need.
Only five died in all that long yeriod of confinement
OD the island, including a child an,' two men who,
having injured a hand and foot respectively, suffeied
from fatal gangrene, the tee natural result of such a
life. Salt to season the eternal omellette they would
get of course from the sea. All this dreary while, it
need not be stated, a keen lookonit was kept from the
fleet break of dawn to the last glimpse of daylight for
any passing is ill—for life iluyended upon rescue. The
iiea-b.r.1,1 were growing wilder as they found them-
selves preyed upon, and there was no way of passing
to the other islands ; thus the agony of the poor
creatures may he imagined when noire than OlUll a
ship was descried, ouly ta be watched as she sidled
past them witl t perceiving their aerials. A teasel,
it declared. Caine within two miles of the tabula,
and must have observed the flag of di-tresin ; but she,
paaawl on. .tt length, however, on a fortunate
day last January, the Yming l'hcenix. a New Bedford
vowel, fiehing the whale in these lonely latitudes,
stooa in to the islatel.aunl saw the blanket ensign.
tier captain, like a worthy fellow, instantly ran up
the Stars and Stripes in token that he woulil send
help, and. deepstching his boats ashore, he, after
learning the p ight the castaways, took all the 44
survivors on hoard his ship, where it WWI naturally
for many days uncommonly clam quarter., But as
he Wall standing northward to disembark the rescued
company at the Mauritius, he encountered another
vessel, the sierra Morena., into which he transhipped
20 of the castaways, who by that means came on to !
:ale, and sent thence the first startling news which
announced the safety of some at least from the ill fated I
Stratlinaore.

lei ht. —Eri LUVIC FITS Olt FALLING &CaMN& —A certain
method of cure ham been discovered for this distressing
amipleint by • phyecian, who is desirous that all sufferers
may smolt from this providential discovery :it is never
kis...a to fail, and will cure the most hopeless csae after
all other means have been tried. Pull Particulars he
sent bv post to any parson free of charge. —Addreea :—Nr.
If 'Weak In, (Word Terrace, Hyde Park, London
Filtiar the Wmley memorial, which has been emoted
i. West.nioster Abbey, waa unveiled. It la in memory of
both John and Charlea Wesley, and owes Ole admiaaion
into oir greet historic church to the liberality of Dean
Stanley, who in all matters of this kind is ma wide aa the
poles asunder from his old canon, the Dement Bishop of
Lincoln. The work has been executed by Hr. Acton,.
Atianis, the sculptor. On the base John Wesley le
represented preeemag, and the faces of those who Petee
to him are portraits of re-cut Presicienta of the Wail.
Ctonfarenos. Another Wesley snenkoriei in tepawd
01: &
chapel at Odprd which will Dolt£B,ooo.and 'Lie built not
far front Kahle I,:ollnee. It hi to he hopet that the erec-
tion will he staletantial. Alressly it has been found
neoeseary to kokl • War in aid of tb,8 "Debt and Renee -
EliPund "of the WealeYan 05ntenary Chapel in St.
adn-the-flast. 6000 it it but • few Tears slue tba
Wu built.