The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-02 00:00:00

DREAN-UL CALAMITY AT SEA.
(From Tuesday's Times.)

II BURNING OF THE " COSPATRICK." .
"The following telegram, received by Messrs,
Shaw, Savill, and Co. frorn St. Helena, erid Maderia
appeared in our Second Edition of yesterday :
• - "¶S 11ElatalA,
" Cospatrick buinl 19th Novehabatiaeond officer and two
seamen picked up by British ScrpAre 27th, and landed at St.
Helena 6th December. It g feared that rest of crew and
passengers are lost.' m
i.
"This telegram arrived, Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Co. in-
form us, in London on Christmas Day, but, owing to the
holidays, remained unopened until Monday morning. .
"The Cospatrick. the same firm tells us, had on board Mk
statute adults, besides surgeon and crew.
"The Cospatrick cleared at the Custom House, London,
on the Bth of Sertember. She was a teak built sailing ship,
classed A 1 at Lloyds, built at Moulmein in 1856, and newly
coppered this year. Her managing owners were Messrs.
Shaw, Savill, and Co., a firm largely engaged in the New '
Zealand trade. The owners had contracted with the Colonial
Government to carry emigrants to Auckland, New Zealand.
The emigrants were taken on board at the Colony's DepAt
at Blackwell, the establishment which we nt ticed at an
Jaarly period of this year. Her last voyage out was on the
same business, and she had made a recent passage with
Coolies from Calcutta to Demerara. '
"The number of emigrants shippenn September last was
429, the crew were 41 in number, exclusive of the master
and the surgeon, and there were four steerage passengers—
in all, 476 souls. In addition to provisions for the emi-
grants, the vessel carried a general cargo of 092 tons weight.
Her registered tonnage was 1,200 tons. She went out, the
owners say, in light trim. Before an emigrant ship leaves
this country she has to pass a strict examination under
the Passenger Acts, by the Board of Trade, and among the
things to be carried is a fire-engine in proper working order.
Six boats must also be carried by a vesse lot the tonnage
of the Cospatrick, and one of them must be a lifeboat
and another a longboat. The Oospatrick did actually carry
two lifeboats, and was provided with lifebuoys as re-
quired by the Act. She left Gravesend on the 11th of Sep-
tember, and on the 14th the pilot quitted her off the Start.
She would, in the ordinary course, have gone right away to
Auckland without putting in. OnrOctober 28 the Cospatrick
was spoken, and she was then in lat. 11 5.,10ng.34 N., if these
figures be correct. The nextasews we have of her is by tele-
graph from Madeira. It will be observed that the corre-
spondent at Madeira, from whom Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and
Co. ,received the telegram we print above, was only a forward-
ing agent. There is no telegraphic cable between St Helena and
Madeira, and the correspondent at Madeira was forwarding
by telegraph, as sufficiently appears from the concluding
words of the message, a despatch received by letter
from the agent of the owners at St. Helena. The
telegram reached London at 10.3 p.m. on Christmas night,
December 25. A telegram was also received at Lloyd's, and
is also dated Christmas-day, Madeira, 5.40 p.m., but it does
not appear in the Saturday evening edition of their List, and
was only published yesterday morning. The Lloyd's telegram
gives a.lditional detail., while omitting part of the owner's
Information. "The Cospatrick," it says, "took fire at sea
and was totally destroyed 17th November, in lat. 37 S., long.
12 E." The saving of the second mate and of two of the crew
Is mentioned; it adds, "the passengers and the remainder of
the crew are supposed to be drowned." This telegram also is,
though coming from Madeira, a mere repetition of a despatch
sent by other means from St. Helena. How 'did the newts
reach Madeira? The Times of the 26th supplies the pro-
bable answer. The Nyanza, the mail steamer of the Union
Steamship Company, was on that day announced to haye
safely reached Madeira on Christmas. Day. She carried the
mails of the sth from the Cape, and was to leave Madeira
on Saturday afternoon for Plymouth, where she is expected
to arrive on Thursday. It would be in her regular duty to
call at St. Helena on the way from the Cape.
"The news from St. Helena went no further than we have
stated. But next day in Madeira something had been added
to the story, whether from inquiry on board the Nyanza or,
as we would fain hope, by the baseless rumour of a sea-
port. The Brazilian Submarine Telegraph Company send
us a telegram dated December 26, and in the following ,
words :
" MADEIRA, Dec. 26.

"Ship Cospatrick, with 400 emigrants and 41 crew, took
fire at noon on Tuesday, November 17, in lat. 37 15 S., long.
12 25 W. Only three survivors at present known—namely,
second mate and two seamen, who were picked up by ship
British Sceptre, of Liverpool, after being ten days in boat
and subsisting on the flesh and blood of others who died
while in the boat. Survivors leave here to-day in Nyanza.' ''

"It will be seen that the whole news of the calamity rests
upon the testimony of three shipwrecked men, likely take
the gloomiEst view of the disaster which caused them to
endure hardships upon the sea for eight days. We only
know the name of one of these men, the second officer,
Henry 3l'Donald. Lloyd's and theißrazilian telegram differ as
to the latitude and longitude of the scene of the burning in
one important particular. The one puts the longitude east,
the other west. ` If the longitude were west the disaster
would have occurred close to the Island of Tr ittad d'Acunha,
the chief of a mountainous group, on which refuge might
possibly have been taken. If longitude east should be
read, escape might perhaps have been made to the Cape
Coast, whence Capetown would ultimately be reached.
Seeing that there were six boats, two of them life-boats, we
have some ground for her hope. It is too early yet to con-
clude that 474 persons have perished. But they cannot
all have been saved.

"The New Zealand Government appears to take great
care of its emigrants, and it has not before sustained in its
ships a disaster accompanied by loss of life, the stranding of
the Surat near Otago being without fatal consequences. It
has for some time past .oeen spending on emigration a great
part of the proceeds of a recent loan. It has erected the
depot for them at Blackwall. Till the good harvest made
emigrants less easy to find, it has been despatching 4,000 or
5.000 persons a month, and it has three ships starting this
week. It has sent le7 vessels out in all, and 60,000 persons.
More than 100 of the vessels and about 40,000 of the people
have gone this year. Emigrant ships are not allowed
to proceed to sea if there be on board, as cargo,
any gunpowder, vitriol, or lucifer matches. The
emigrants are told to give up to the captain their matches
and any inflammable goods, but the order is not strictly
enforced. Excellent provision is made for their comfort,
and in the Cospatrick the poop was entirely devoted to the
unmarried girls who were going out. A matron and con-
stables to keep order are chosen from among the emigrants.
The vessel was, so far as regards the risk of ' the managing
owners, uninstred ; or rather they were their own under-
writers. But the freight was insured.
"We add what we believe to be exhaustive lists of the
persons on board. Persons not comprised in these list;
may reasonably be supposed not to have sailed in the ill:
fated vessel, whatever their intention may have been.—[The
Times then gives the names of the emigrants, and the
officers and crew of the ship.]
The following is from the Correspondent of the
Daily News :
"MADEIRA, Monday Night.
"The loss of the Cospatrick was attended with many dis-
tressing incidents. At midnight on the 17th November, when
the second officer left the deck, everything was apparently all
right, but at half-past twelve o'clock he was awoke by the
alarm of fire. The captain was on deck immediately, and
all hands attempted to get the vessel before the windt but
without success. The flames came up the fore hatch within
a quarter of an hour, and in less than half an hour the fire
was nearly all along the deck.
"The confusion was very great, and only two boats, with
thirty persons in each, succeeded in getting away from the
vessel. One of the boats has not been heard of. The other
was picked up, nine days after the vessel had sunk, by the
ship British Sceptre, with only five survivors in her. Two
of these died on board of the British Sceptre before that
vessel reached*St. Helena, and the other three, Macdonald,
the second officer, Lewis and Cotter, seamen, were landed at
the island, from which place they are now on their voyage
to Southampton in the Nyanza.
"It is a matter of doubt who suffered the most—those who
perished by fire, those who were drowned when the vessel
was burnt and sunk, or those who died from thirst and
starvation in the boats."
"The boat that was picked up had drifted out of the usual
track of vessels, and it is a wonder that it was met with.
When the British Sceptre bore down towards the boat the
survivors were at the bottom listless .or sleeping, And the
second officer was awoke hy-'one of the men, Who was 'Mad,
biting his heel.", - •'

" Throughout the whole of Monday numerous and
most pressing inquiries respecting relatives known to
be on board the ill-fated ship were made at Messrs.
Shaw and Savill's, 34, Leadenhall-street, and at the
New Zealand Emigration General Ag,eney, 7, West-
minster-chambers, 'Victoria-street. In neither case
could any information be given beyond that which ap-
peared in the newspapers. Several of the female rela-
tives of passengers and seamen were deeply affected, and
gave utterance to the most poignant and agonising ex-
pressions of grief. Captain Elmslie's children, who
are in London with their uncle, were about to leave
for Hastings when the sad news reached them. Mrs.
Elmslie, the captain's wife, remains to share their
sorrow for one who has the reputation of being a
thoroughly competent navigator, and a most humane
and gentlemanly commander. All the seamen en-
gaged had gone on board except one, J. Albano, who
was missing when the roll was called at Deal. The
last communication received from the captain re-
ported :
"All on board except J. Alba no,A. 8., 44 in number, includ-
ng m) self. 12th September, 1874
"A. ELMSLIE, Master Ship Cospatrick.
"One of the sailor apprentices, H. J. Atwell, a boy
of fourteen years, who had just left school, was mak-
ing his first voyage. He had written home when off
the Isle of Wight in good spirits. His brother and
a friend went to Messrs. Shaw and Sa.vill's on Monday
to make inquiries, but without much hope that the
lad was among the survivors."

The Daily Telegraph has published the following
despatch from Madeira, dated Monday, Dec. 28 :

The ship British Sceptre, bound from Calcutta to Dundee,
put into St. Helena on the 6th of December, having picked
up at sea, on the 27th of November, in latitude 28 deg.
50 min. S., longitude 12 deg. 44 min. E., a boat containing
Macdonald, the second officer, Thomas Lewis, seaman, James
Cotter, seaman, and R. Hamilton, seaman, of the ship Cos-
patrick, Captain Elmslie, which had caught fire on the 17th of
November, in latitude 37 deg. 15 min. S., longitude 12 deg.
25 min. E. The four men had been in the boat for ten days
without water or any kind of food, and after being taken on
board the Sceptre Hamilton died raving mad. It appears
from the statements of the survivors that during those ten
days they had existed solely on the dead bodiis of their com-
panions, of whom there were originally thb ty in the
same boat. lalacdonald, the second mate, reports that at
midnight on the 17th of November, it being at the time
his watch below, the first alarm was given that the ship was
on fire. It was thin supposed that the mischief had
olginated in the boatswain's locker. Immediately the
most strenuous efforts were made to put the fire out,
but it continued to spread. All endeavours proved
vain, and in the course of an hour or two from the
first signal being given the ship was a mass of
flames. When completely gutted by the fire the hull still
floated, and the boats remained alongside her till Thurs-
day, the 19th November, when she sank. Captain Elmslie
and his wife and Dr. J. F. cadle stayed by the ship till the
last moment, and then Jumped overboard and were drowned.
When the tirewas at its worst there was a rush to the boats,
wideh seem to have been soon filled, and then a. scene
of :- Andescribable horror ensued. "it was," says the
'second mate, ." awful to tree men; NVOIITCII, .and children
drowning round the burning vessel, with no means to save
1 them." The chief officer, Mr. Charles Romaine, five seamen,
and 25 passengers, had taken refuge in another boat, which
kept company with the one picked by up the Seeptre for two
days, when they were driven apart by a hard gale. What
lit came of them afterwards is not known. Macdonald's story
of the sufferings which he and his companions had to endure
in the boat is most harrowing. lie is of opinion that he,
Lewis, and Cotter are theonly survivors of the whole 4713
souls that were on board the Cogpatrick. The three men are
passengers by the Nyanza for Southampton, where they
expect to arrive on Saturday, the 2nd of January."