The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-02-01 00:00:00

A SAD TALE OF SHIPWRECK.

a --:- i

The following Is the narrative of Mr. John Saville, first
mate of the American ship Golden Hind, wrecked on the
rout of Patagonia In Juno last, on her voyage from New
York for San Francisco. The ship met with very had
Weather when off the Patagonian cast, and lost her rudder
at the entrance of the Straits of Magellan. A temporary
rudder was made, but it was carried away two days after-
wards, awl after drifting helplessly the ship struck on the
rocks. Mr. Saville says :
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Three boats were hurriedly prepared, the men pot
on extra suits of clothes, laid in a small quantity of
provisions, and at seven o'clock that evening lowered
away. In the hurry of departure nearly all our nau-
tical instruments were left on board, and, in fact,
many articles abrolutelv necessary. There were three
Potato lowered, the first owlet the command of Captain
Robbins, the second csnunanded by myself, and the
third in charge of Mr. WI bh, the second mate. Eseh
contained acorn men. Mr. Webb, asserting that he
knew the situation better than we did, parted
company almost immediately, and it being then
quite dark, we lay under the lee of the lend until
morning. The sea at the time we left the ship
was breaking over her foreyard and during
the night she beat to pieces on the rocks. The next
inn:Mug the last vestige of the Holden Hind had die.
appeared, and a search, which continued two days, was
snarls for the other boat, but no trace of her could be
seen. We had 1 ing before this concluded that she was
swamped, and that her entire crew were drowned.
Upon examination it was found that we had a small
hoe and a bag of hard bread, the I tter soaked with
sea water, about 29 cans of beef, and a little tea and
coffee. An allowance of one cracker to each man and
one can rif beef to 14 was at first issued, but this speed-
ily decreased to half a cracker, and finally we eid not
taste meat more than once a week.

" A few days after we left the wreck the captain's
boas was swsmped, and we lost our COMpaR., the only
instrument we had, and a quantity of provisions. An
attempt Wal LW: ti to reach Sandy Point, a Chilian
convict settlement, and the meting station of the
Pacific mail stutmers, about two-thirds the way throngh
the Straits of nigellan, but our course could only be
ite.teruilned by the sun and stars. It wee then mid-
',niter, the mountains along the west were covered
With now arid ice, and the mercury ust have been
several degrees below z, to. We pulled doer to laud,
.rldng all' night in fair weather, and, during a
heavy blow, landing and going into camp. There
weze plenty of strub trees along the coaat ; and
161 we were provided wide two hatchets and a g ned
supply of matches, a firu was always to he procured.
During these visits we secured a good supply of shell-
fish, resembling the mussel, MA we found that this diet
brought on constipation, and the entire party became
unwell. For about twenty days the men held ont ad-
mirably, but in the bitter cold °member were frostbitten,
nevi our legs and feet were terribly swollen. On going
into camp we constructed a tent of the boat's sail and a
mizzen royal rail with the oars. A tire will twilit in the
centre, and the fourteen men sat round it the night
through. We suffered terribly from the loss of sleep, as
no one dared to rem Mu away f rout the fire or tear of freez-

big to death, and the tent was too email to hold all in •
reclining ponition. At the end of the twentieth lay the
general 11.-bility from innufificient fol.d and the extierue
pain in our limbs rendere I the progress slow, and very
often we camped for several days at a time. The allow.
once cf bread bad been reduced, and very often the
men did vaithout for a day or two together, to help
out the supply. Their conduct throughout the dread.
fed ordeal was must courageous. Every man ten.
&red implicit obedience, and, although the ravages of
bunrer rendered °each almost an animal, the general
welfare was never lost sight of.
" Almost the entire month of July was spent in pal-
fitly in what we believed to be the direction to Sandy
Point. The only human beingawe tort were an Indian
and two squaws in a canoe. They treated ILA cordially,
awl willingly exchanged a duck for a small quantity ,4
tobacco, but thy had no other pr Nia.lolls. We had
secured from the ship two rifles, and one I the crew
alit a duck, but the powder becnine wet and our
weapons were useless. A deal duck found smog the
rooks wai Lisa libellred and eaten, but, with tie exerts-
tau uf the shellfish, this was the only food we secured.
In the latter ptrt of July the weather in wane fearfully
tempt istuous, and after atonal days of fruitless buffet-
Lug we went into our last encampment It was a ter-
ribly bleak and desolate spot, shut out front the tilsa by
high olds, and filled with low, stuntcd 'trees. We
found, however, :v iew roots, sonar berries, and, strange
to nay, a little teloy, and, not knowing whether the
vegetable were poisonous or not, each wan partook
ravenously of whatever he could bind. The high tides
prevented our securing any shelltieh, and he few seals
we saw were too Valid to capture, but we secured
water in abundance from the streams running down
the. mountain.

" Here the men became serionaly iIL Their legs
were swollen to frightful proportions; hut few could
wear their boots, and a majority wandered about with
their fret tied up in old cloth and ideces of canvas.
Some, unable to walk at all, crawled about on their
hands and knees. At length a man named While, a
seaman, became delirious, and shortly afterwards
died. The ground was so hardly frozen that it was
impossible to dig a grave, an we carried the body a
short distance from the tent and laid it in the bushes
The next one attacked was a yonng fellow we called
Dan—sailors, you know, never give their full names,
except on the artich a —and he died within three hours
after he became delirious. The carpenter, a man from
Liverpool, was the next victim :then we lost Charley, a
Gelman 'seaman ' • and, finally, another sailor called
Frank. All of thetxt died within ten days of each other,
and all were lai I Fhb, by rile out in the hushes. As
each one left us we took his clothes to keep the living
ones warm; but dming ail these dav s not one of us had
a mouthful of focal. At length the steward, taking
one of the men out with him into the bush, returned
with slices of meat, w hie•h were roasted over the fire
and eagerly devoured. We all of us knew we were
sustaining life on the Ix dies of our dead companions,
but no man asked a question. Sometimes we had it
boiled, and sometimes roasted. It tasted something
like beef—but it makes tue shudder now to think of it.

"When we bad eaten almost all of the last body, the
schooner Eagle. of Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, out
seal-fishing, hove in sight. One of our men ceawled up
to the head of the rocks, and, waving the American
flag, with the union down, attracted the;r attention.
They picked no no and received no all with as great
kindness NI if we had been their own kindred. We
found that we had pulled shout two-thirds of the way
through the Straits nf Magellan, and were then within
60 miles of Sandy Point. There, after the third day,
the Eagle landed no, and the Chilian Governor at ones
provided no with everything in the way of food
and clothing we requir.d. He would have sent
us by the steamer to Valparaiso, but before she arrived
the United States' sloop of war Ossipee put into port
and took ws on board. Captain Robbins, myself, the
steward, sued five seamen were left of a crew of 21.
From the time the On!den Hind went to pieces we
sp nt 48 days in open boat., with o3ly the subsistence
I have named. The captain of the Osaipee shipped
the seamen, althongh all of Chem were on the is:ek fist,
and brought Captain Robbins and myself to Rio de
Janeiro. There I met t'aptain Gerham ('rowell, of
the bark Cohn E. ittNeil. who kindly volunteered to
bring me to New ()atoms"