The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-08-08 00:00:00

AN EXTRAORDINARY CRUISE._

The Tii;zes- of India publishes an interesting and
curious story of the adventures of a German skipper
in search of wealth upon barren islands. In the
month of February of the present year, according
to the account of F. F. Kroncke, the master
in question, his barque Annie was chartered for
17:2U0 per month, two months subsidy being paid,
by a "Captain" Dawson, presumably another
skipper. This " Captain " Da.wson hailed from
London, and was accompanied by a Mr. Orme Fry,
his "assistant and adviser," and by another "Captain,
William Pain, also of London, and discoverer of
silver mines and guano. lie was also proprietor of
an island, and thus a good Sancho Panza to his
Don Quixote. It was a Quixotic expedition on
which they were bound, but the object was less
philanthropic, less Quixotic in fact, as might be
guessed from the fact of Sancho leading;
and the place to which they were to
go had a most vague position, somewhere between
Odeg. and 10dg,.. south latitude and between 50deg.
and 60 deg. east longitude. So they sailed. They
called in at Tallear, in Madagascar, to take in a
supply of tools. Sancho's imaginative nature was not
long in showing itself. Ile knew of some treasure,
"buried from olden times" in Europa Island, and
this, with a self-abnegation altogether uncharacter-
istic of his prototype, he was willing to share with
his Don Quixote, who, however, being a slave to his
charter-party, refused the tempting offer. From
the first Sancho seems to have taken the lead, for his
master was quite bound down by the charter-party.
Sancho gave orders to go to Latham Island, and his
companion, the other "captain," said that Latham
Island contained 6000 tons of guano. To Latham
Island accordingly they went. Some of the crew went
on shore, but they regretted doing so, for they
could not return. Next day they did succeed in
returning, but in a very sorry condition; and they re-
ported that there was no guano there, and, indeed,
there could be none, for the sea washed over it.
"Captain" Dawson then gave orders to go to Mom-
bas, where silver ors was to be obtained, and
he was obeyed. On arriving they found none, but,
on the contrary, were badly received, for "Captain"
Pain, who seems to have been one of the trio of
adventurers who schemed out the expedition, was
"known" to the missionaries and theßritish Consul.
Thence, after various other proposals had been re-
jected, the Annie sailed for the Amirante Islas:els.
'Here they found pumice-stone from the Java erup-
tion, it is asserted, but no guano, and a fisherman
was found who have lived there for two years, but he
knew of no guano. Difficulties now began. Menu
was not forthcoming for ordinary disbursements
connected with the ship, and there was no cargo upon
which a lien might have been obtained. Legal advice
was sought, and a plea in the law courts was lost and
won. The adviser and assistant" saw his occupa-
tion gone and withdrew. Then the coolies also
took leave, for they had been badly treated. And
so the expedition turned out a fiasco, and the "master
of the German barque Annie " at last reached Bombay,
where he sold by public auction the tools which were
to have been used for the imaginary guano. Finally,
it turned out that "Captain" Dawson had not re-
ceived permission Zo take guano from the islands even
had it existed, and without permission no vessel could
load there. It is quite possible that large stores of
guano may yet be discovered on islands in mid-ocean
or out of the track of vessels, but when "captains"
charter vessels to seek guano on islands which con-
tain none, and are dangerous to boot, and tie down
other " captains " by rt-orous charterparties to obey
orders, the result cannot be different from what fol-
lowed in the story related, which was, in homely
phrase, a mere "wild-goose chase" with an attempt
to "put salt on its tail."