The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-02-06 00:00:00

DREADFUL SUFFERINGS OF A
SHIP'S CREW.

By the arrival at Liverpool on Monday of the
African mail steamer Biafra, we have details of the
lose of the barque Florence Nightingale, of London,
Captain Bright, and of the fearful sufferings of the
passengers and crew. The Florence Nightingale left
Bathurst, Gambia River, for Sierra Leone, on the 24th
December, with seven females, two priests, two Kroo-
men, and nine ship's crew. On the night of the 26th
the barque unexpectedly struck on a sandbank not
marked on the charts, and which was not at the time
surrounded by broken water. In attempting to get
her off two boats were stove in, and one of the Kroo.
men drowned. All hands then set to work and made a
raft, on which some provisions, brandy, and sherry were
placed, but the captain in the hurry forgot water and
his charts and instruments. After trying for some
time to tow the raft by the aid of a small boat-17
feet by 6 feet—they were forced to leave it and crowd
into the boat. The provisions were soon exhausted,
and under a but sun, without water, they all took to
drinking salt water. This soon made one seaman
named Brown, crazy, and so violent that he bad to be
forcibly kept at the bottom of the boat. The captain
bled him twice, and each time he did so, the blood
was greedily sucked up by the others who were very
quarrelsome and violent. They at last resolved to draw
Jots who should kill Brown before he died. The lot fell
upon a coloured boy from Bathurst, who, however, re-
fused to act. Just then the capt.in providentially
caught a fish of three pounds weight, having made a fish-
hook from a woman's hair-pin, and baited it with a small
crab he caught in some floating seaweed. This was
eagerly devoured, as were also some crabs and butter-
flies, which showed that land was near. In fact, they
soon after reached the Isle de Los, where Captain
Curren, of the whaler S. A. Paine, of Provincetown,
Massachusetts, not only treated them with the
greatest kindness, but took the crew on to Sierra
Leone, whence they were sent home in the Biafra as
distressed British seamen. These twenty persons were
nine days in an open boat, under a tropical sun, with
only 201bs. of provisions and no water. They drifted
in that time over 200 miles.

THE REV. A. H. MACKONOCHIE AT
ST. PAUL'S, WALWORTH.
An unusually crowded congregation attended the com-
munion service at St. Paul's Church. Lorrimore-square, Wal-
worth, on Sunday last, it having been announced that the
sermon would be preached by the Rev. A. H. Mackonochie,
vicar of St. Alban's, Holborn.
With the exception that lighted candles and incense were not
used, the communion service was conducted in high ritualistic
form, a procession up and down the church being added to
the ordinary formula observed at St. Paul's. Shortly after
eleven o'clock the procession issued from the vestry. It was
headed by a chorister, carrying a processional cross, followed
by three choristers abreast, the centre one bearing a beauti-
fully illuminated banneret, displaying, upon a glittering
silver ground, an oval picture, elegantly finished, of the
Virgin carrying the infant Jesus. Between this and
the clergymen two other banners were carried at equidistant
parts of the procession. One was formed of magenta silk,
bordered with bright green, embroidered with leaves worked
In gold. On the magenta ground was displayed a sword
crossed by reeds, symbolical of the reed placed in the
Saviour's hand, and surmounted by an ancient crown. The
other bannaret had on it a cross in the midst of silver stars,
with the inscription, "Oh ! cross, more lovely than the
stars." After the choristers came the Rev. A. H. Mackouo-
chin and other clergymen, the last in order being the Rev. J.
Going, the incumbent, and two of his curates, clothed in
splendid white vestments embroidered in gold. Mr. Going
was the celebrant at the communion service. The procession
went down one side of the chnrch, and up the nave to the
altar, the hymn, Christ is made the sure foundation corner-
stone" being °haunted all the time. After the Creed,
The Rev A. H. Maekonochie, who wore a white stole and
made the sign of ths cross before he et irnmenced his sermon,
preached, taking for his text the concluding words of the
Gospel of the day ,Sexagesima Sunday) Luke vlsi., V. 15,
"But that on the good ground are the y which, in an haneott
and good heart, having heard the word, keep it. and bring
forth fruit with patience." He sail that the occurrence of
their Church's festival struck upon their ears much ill the
same way as the notes of Christmas had. It was not, as the
ungodly world thought, a festival of outside pretence,
because their hearts vitro beating before the altar of their God
In unison with many. Nor was theirs, as they had been
told, an extraordinary worship, but one of reality in that
voice with which 0041 had spoken to them, not from without
but within, and hath told them of the reality of the hive,
power, and forgiveness of Jesus. The world without hesitated
to hill communion with JO4llB, hilt they ot the Church knew
Him, had been with film, and knew He had been with them.
This was not speculation ;it was not imagination—it was
not hope—it was a reality for them. The woild might
tell them they were superficial ; but If they were, then
would Jeans forsake them. Ile WAS speaking solemn words
because he felt strongly, and he knew those who heard him
felt strongly, because their hearts and souls were stirred and
moved up to the all-loving Jesus, In the light of whose
countenance they all rejoiced. There was something of
special interest in the festival of the Church at this time.
It was because trouble had fallen upon them—had fallen
upon them for Jesus. When the Apostles wept over the
grave of Jesus, they did not do so simply because He had
for the moment disappeared, but because their hearts
realised the great truth of the resurrection which was so
near at hand; and they wept because the world had
triumphed over Him whose love and whose power they had
experienced. And so it was that the personal experience of
the love and power of Jesus on those who heard him now
made them sorry at this time. He must ask them to
let him speak plainly about that which was now in
all hearts. He cold not speak of anything else. They
twist not underrate the issues that wore at stake at
he present moment—at thin particular period in the
history if the world, and of the Church. Wlmt were
the issues at stake The issue was this : the Gospel of
the blessed .testis, in its fulness, as it was delivered to ua by
our dear Church, once more to spread over this land, not
stripped of all those blossoms which give It meaning; oils