The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-11-11 00:00:00

WRECK OF THE "SAN RAFAEL."

#

Confirmatory news has reached England of the wreck of the
San Rafael In the South Sea, and of terrible sufferings and
death by starvation of part of the crew. The Liverpool Weekly
Msrcury of the 15th of April last contained the following
narrative :

"The San Rafael, bound from Liverpool for Valpa-
raiso, with coal, was burnt on the 4th of January, in
latitude 53 S., and longitude 76 W. Eleven of the crew
were picked up on the 31st of January by the Yorkshire,
from Melbourne, and arrived at Gravesend on Wed-
nesday. The captain and the remainder of the crew
are missing. The following further particulars have
been received :—On the night of leaving the vessel the
boats parted company, the captain, his wife and eight
others being in the long-boat. The crew of the other
boat were in a sad state, and Buffered greatly from
hunger, sores, and frostbite. Some days were
passed in shelter on the numerous small islands
to the south-west of Tierra del Fuego, but
from their barren nature only limpets and mussels were
obtained. On the 24th of January, the cook, Henry
11111, died from exposure, and when the remainder
were rescued by the ship Yorkshire on the 31st, George
Hinds, one of the apprentices, had two toes ampu-
tated. The following is a list of the crew saved :
William Kilgour, mate; W. M'Leod, second mate;
James Richards, third mate' P. Sheeham, sailmaker ;
J H. Ormsby, steward; J. Black, John Murray, F.
Alien, W. Kenny, A. Martell, able seamen; and G.
Hinds, apprentice. Missing :—James M'Adam, master,
and his wife; James Reed, carpenter. J. Johansen,
H. ilmmings, C. Pugh, able seamen- and W, H.
Swift, George Stewart, and Daly, apprentices."
Nothing more was heard of the misting mariners until the
following letter from the Rev. T. Bridges, Missionary Super-
Intendant of the South American Missionary Society at
Ooshoaia, Tierra del Fargo, to Governor Callaghan, Falkland
Islands, completed the sad story :

" Monday, May 22, 1876. On board the Allen
Gardiner, Button Island, Fireland,—Sir —1 feel it a
duty to apprise you of the probable loss Of a Liverpool
vessel, called an Rafael, belonging to Balfour,
Williams, and 00. I say probable loss, because we
are only sure of the death of part of her crew

and officers, and have no proof whatever of the
loss of the vessel, though we are strongly of opinion
that she is lost. On April 22 a large party of
Indians reached Ooshoof a from New Year's Sound
and neighbourhood, and brought news of the death
of nine men by starvation and exposure on an
exposed part of the coast, which we pidged to be
somewhere betwee . - : terman and Henderson Tel
They brolut pr. '.. Clair' Statements in the clothing
they wore ad , Enelfih covereign they offered for
sale. The'repoit was briefly as follows :
, .
" A/Indian from his canoe had seen signs of the le
sence of straugers on a rugged islet. Being unac.mne
panied by any to help him save his wife, he was afraid
to land or even appr. agh near, but went eastwards in
search of helpers, - After some time a small number
one or two canoes approached; the men landed ant
walked up, and found seven men dead and two
still living, but very weak, rigid in limb, emaciated,
and unable to walk or stand. The natives were
affected to tears, and lighted a fire for the two
sufferers, one of whom was stronger than his com-
panies, and still retained his senses. The Indians
fetched them water and gave them a shag (sea bird),
left them. The poor men had neither fire,
water, nor food, and their skin had largely peeled off,
and seven had already died. Much clothing was taken
by the natives, but only such as they found lying around
and we learnt afterwards that what they took on this
-visit was given them by the poor man to whom they
gave drink and rood. We also learnt afterwards that
thf natives tried to straighten his legs, and offered to
coievey him away in their canoe, brit in vain. He drank
twice and tasted the shag, but could not eat; he was
too far gone and too weak to avail himself of the natives'
mildness. He, however' gave away many thine;
beckoning to them to take what they chose. The
natives then left, as they could not remain there;
because they could neither moor their canoe to the
kelp in such rough waters nor haul it ashore on the
steep rugged ooast. We heard at first that the natives
riturned the following day and found both the men dead,
but we since heard on the spot that bad weather pre-
vented their return for some days. On their return they
found the whole nine dead. Then they took away
what they chose, but did not denude the dead. We
heard that the dead were lying orderly, so placed by
, heir sorrowful companions, but afterwards found the
lattices had placed most of the bodies as we found them."
(The writer here goes into various details regarding the
ctlyage in the Allen Gardener to the spot, which was a
very stormy one, and continues), "We went to Indian
ice in search of competent guides, and were happy
finding two who had been the first to visit
e place of suffering. The next day, Thursday, the
18th of May. we were directed by them to the first
headland inside of Black Head in Roue Sound. Two
geamen, Captain Willis (master of the Allen Gardiner),
lied four Indians and myself accordingly went to the
place, and owing to the long-continued fine weather
wily effected a landing, two men keeping the boat on
,a4dsoff, while one after another jumped ashore. We
trceanabled up the steep, rocky coast, and some fifty
yards above the sea, near the middle of the islet,
or rather peninsula found nine dead bodies much
decomposed, but all abundantly clothed. One of
tilers ,w2‘ , Jeonsam, evidently the captain's wife,
'wlic. *as'llgTheside her. Seven bodies were lying
in a long hollow between rocks about 41 t. wide and bit.
-die-p;aixd about Oft; long. Two bodies were away from
the rest, but close to each other. At the upper end
of this hollow the poor fellows had Hired. Across the
rocks they had spread canvas, perhaps their boat's sail,
which had attracted the Indian's sharp sight from the
other aide of the sound. Here they had made their
fires and cooked their food—tins of meat and such
mussels as they could gather on the steep and wave.
washed coast of their circumscribed prison, a peninsula
about 150 ft, high, 100 yards wide from West to east,
and 300 yards long from north to south. It appeared
from the sea to be joined to the main, but on ascending
we were horrified to find an abrupt chasm completely
cutting off retreat from this dreadful pelson. We
remained, covering over thn dead and in search of
information an -long as we could, but threatening
weather prevented our staying as long as we could have
wished. From clothing and other things we ascer-
tained the names of eight of the dead, as follows t—
" Mr. and Mrs. M'Adam—the latter .by birth S're
suppose to have beenzamed- M. Proctor, by finding
that name on an article, of.dreee; W. H. Swift, W.
Daly, G. G. Stewart, T. Unilandt, and James Reid—
address of latter, Lockatill or Lockhilt. Captain Willis
fortunately came across a private note written in
pencil on four loose leaves of a pocket-book by Captain
M'Adam, addressed to his son, as follows :
.._

the rand

pre-

_ tar goni

LU

"In lat. 54deg. 80min. 8., lonz. 71deg. W., Feb. 15, 1870,
'Dear Jobn,—When you receive this your mother and mee
will be no more we have been 41 days in this desolate Island
on very low diet your Mother and me is very week I am about
blind I aan scarciey see the paper I am writing My watch and
your Mother chain I give to Willy my Albert to yourself and
you must wear your Mothers ring the ear rings for <Teaser
My instrument ckths & gold watch three pounds twelve
shilling to assist in maintaining Willie, and I hope you will
be as a father to him Mud and giving him good advice,
the furniture to yotirself their is too chronomtters one
Telescope one night the chronometer marked Webster &
Telescoiie you must take to the office and you can see if their
Ii any money due for mee if there is it will have to go for the
maintenance of William. And his Mother joins with mee in
hoping he will he a good Boy and not forget hi,' Gad aid we
hope that you & and Jessey may live long together in happi-
ness & peace in Fear of the Lord, and now we send yoU our
;last kind loveing blessing and may God Bless you all is the
F,siscerest with of your Parents James WAdam To John
allemieg St Oanterbury Street Everton Ltverp- ol.'
.Doubtless a record was kept, but the natives having
twice visited the place before us, and the strong gales
and heavy ruins, and a space of at least two months.
-intervening before our hurried visit in seartlh, ...counts
for the paucity of information foiled. We were on the
rock about two hours, We buried the dead as we
!came Levu., as is ~... impossiole to remove them.
Since then we have recovered from +ha ...sis-... a. Mara.
nometer and case which was stowed away in a rock on
an islet in New Year's Sound, a barometer and sextant-
case, and part of 'South American Pilot,' also hid
away in like manner. A night binocular was also
freely given up, and among the natives we saw various
trinkets they had obtained from watches, &c. Our
guides were glad to be taken, as they were thus
enabled to get clothes and other things they had pre-
viously stowed away, but had been unable to remove.
They were allowed to appropriate these things after
we had examined them. They were also rewarded
with an axe each. We gave the natives particular
directions as regards their conduct towards strangeis
and distressed seamen, and promised rewards to such
who should be the happy means of saving life or helping
the distressed and bringing them to Ooshooia (the mie-
sion station in Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego). From
the quantity of things we caw on the peninsula, and
heard of as having previously been removed by the
natives, we infer that the poor fellows had leisure in
removing from their vessel. There were some five or
six oars, about twenty-four empty meat tine, odds and
ends of clothing lying about, chart, broken epitomes,
~ large chronometer case, Bible Prayer Bookie and
F ' dry odds and ends of other books. While we were
I eineing abotst, the two sailors in the boat pulled up
lin
h 'to the bay near by, and found parts of two name-
%bards of 1,43 San Rafael, which we suppose to have
been tied to the thwarts of the boat, the wreckage of
which was lying around. Thu poor men could not
have saved their boat on the place they landed, as
they could neither have anchored it off nor hauled it
ashore. We wonder they landed on such a bad place,
where mood and water are Scarce, Mid retreat impos-
sible. We suppose they either landed at night, or
chose the spot as being the most likely whence they
might attract the attention of passing vessels. They
must, according to Captain M'Adam's note which is
dated February 15, 1876, have landed on note,
5
which is the midst of summer. Row long it Was be-
fore the first visit of the natives that the native named
Cushooyif became meare of the presence of strangers
there, and Caine out into the sound towards the place
to look, I cannot say (since ascertained that 21 days
elapsed before the natives could make up their minds
to land) ; but he saw no man or smoke, only the white
canvas roof. Then natives are afraid of the natives
to the westward, who some yeara ago killed some of
them. They invited them ashore as friends and then
killed them. Cushooyif thought it might be some of them
or other strangers. No wonder he would not venture,
when alone, too near the place. Had he been able to
overcome his fears he might have been the happy means
of saving life; if, on the other hand, our own people,
who are altogether too suspicious of these they
clump to call savages, would hare trusted or received
him. Perhaps, poor fellows, one reason of their
choosing their miserable abode was because they could
more easily prevent the natives attacking them. On
the other hand, had they gone further up the sound or
across to the other side they would have been com-
paratively in quiet waters, in a good land where they
would have saved their boat and readily travelled
from place to place, till they might meet with the
natives, some of whom know a little English, and are
much humanised by the knowledge they have attained
of God and his world. I feel sure they would have
been kindly treated and forwarded and brought on their
way to Ooshooia. Hosts Island is not accurately
drawn on the Admiralty chart. It is wonderfully ciet
up by the sea. Ponsonby Sound runs up far into
the island, and from an artn in it you can draw
your boat or canoe over a narrow flat neck and
enter the Beagle Channel by a Bide branch. Again,
from another arm you can in like easy manner enter
the waters of New Year's Sound, which is a sheet of
water broken up by innumerable islands, among which
anchorages abound. A sealing vessel anchored among
the islands south of New Year's Sound, and took two
natives to the Ildefonsos, where they killed many seals
and gave the fat to the natives who helped in skinning
the animals. This must haee been at the time when
anxious eyes looked seaward down Rous Sound in
earnest hope and pressing need of deliverance. It
appears that the poor fellows lost their tire at last, and
were unable to make it any more. We found some
wooden matches loose in a few pockets, but found no
wax matches, and Cushooyif, who doubtless watched
the spet narrowly, saw no smoke, but only the white
canvas. All nine, I think, must have been then alive.
There was much small wood, thickets, and scattered
dwarf trees from if I. to 3ft. high, and all the larger
wood had been cut down with their one axe. There
were the branches scattered about which they had
lopped off. They appear to have taken no pains to
make a shelter from the weather save spreading their
sail, nor did they lay twigs and grass on the damp or
rather wet soppy land in the bottom of the rift in which
they lived to secure dry and warm beds."
There can be little doubt (remarks The Times, from
whom we are quoting) although there is some discre-
pancy as to two of the names, that the men referred to
in the Mercury as "missing" are those whose bodies
were found by the Rev, Mr. Bridges on 'Hoge Island,
in the vicinity of Tierra del Fuego, as detailed in his
painfully interesting letter. The names given by Mr.
Bridges, as ascertained from the clothing worn by the
deceased, are Captain and Mrs. M'Adam, W. H. Swift,
W. Daly, J. Reid, G. G. S .ewart, T. Umlandt,
and two others, names unknown, are mentioned.
Those in the newspaper are James M'A dam
and his wife, James Reid, J. Johanson, C. Pugh,
H. Hemmings, W. H. Swift, G. Stewart, Daly,
Captain Willis handed over to Mr. Bailey, the Re-
ceiver of Wrecks at Sranley, the following articles,
some of which were found hidden among the rocks on
Hoste Island—viz :—One chronometer, one pair of
binoculars, one barameter (aneroid), one epitome, one
sovereign, part of a gold Albert watch chair, one
chart, two Bibles two life-belts, ship's name-hoard,
marked "San Rafael." The articles were to be for-
warded to the Board of Trade by the first opportunity.

"One role Russia will never succeed in coercing—
the Nortb."—Punch, -