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

THE "LA PLATA."

On Thursday, in last week, the boatswain (Henry Lamont)
and the quartermaster (John Hooper) of the late steamship
La Plata, Who were picked up on a raft at sea three days
after the steamer foundered in the Bay of Biscay, and
were taken to Gibralter, arrived at Southampton in the
Peninsular and Oriental e teamship Cathay, which brourcht
them home from that pert, were they had meantime been
. . .

the sufferings endured bir the two poor fellows, and their
narrow escape from death, is taken from the Garotter
Chronicle of the 16th inst. : •
" A remarkable episode in the story of the last
frightful disaster at sea—the foundering of the LaPlata
—is the rescue, after drifting about for three days on
the ocean, of Henry Lamont, boatswain, and John
Hooper, a quartermaster of -the ship. The readers of
the Chronicle will have seen in the issue of the 9th of
December that these poor fellows were landed here on
the 9th from the Dutch schooner Wilhcln Benklezoon ;
but their escape was so extraordinary that an account
of it, taken from their own lips, cannot fail to he
deeply interesting.
"On Sunday morning, the 29th, when it became evr
dent that the La Plata must founder, the fires being ..)
extinguished, and the water rapidly rising in the hold,
two of the lifeboats on deck, one on the port and the
other on the starboard side, were manned by some of
the officers and crew in tire expectation that when ss
the ship sank beneath them the boats would be left
floating—this was really the case with one ot the q-
boas—hut just as the ship was on the point of s" -
sinking a heavy sea washed over her, broke up the
other boat, in which 15 men, including Lamont and
Hooper, were sitting, and washed the whole of the
boat's crew overboard. Lamont and Hooper had sa•
just risen to the surface when the ship took her final
plunge, and they were drawn down again by the suction. • ,
On coming up the second time tiles? Avs floating close , 6
to them the damaged air raft, which they contrived to -
get hold of. This raft was made of comPartments filled
with air and joined by a canvas band, forming a seat. tssis-
Seated on this band they were in a sort of trough and
the water came up to their waists, their bodies below •--
the waist getting gradually benumbed. Their only -
hope of escaping a lingering death lay in their being
I observed by some passing ship; and this chance
seemed small indeed, for to any ship not passing quite
close they would have been a tiny dark speck on the
water, invisible unless when just on the crest of a
wave, and then only visible by the aid of a telescope. '0
The sea was continually washing over them, and -tan
unless they had been men of strong vitality and sound
physique they could hardly have lived through the
three days until their final rescue. During the
Sunday, the first day of their suffering, their anxious
eyes could only discover one passing ship and she
passed much too far off to see them. On Monday ..
there were a strong breeze and a nasty sea; but the
weather was fine. Several ships passed at a distance;
these they could plainly see, but by none of them
could they hope to be seen. Tuesday was calm during "1?
the greater part of the day, and their hopes of safety s-
were raised by seeing a three-masted schooner which
passed within half a mile of the-n. They shouted
with all their might, and thought they must be heard,
but the schooner sailed on. The cry of distress was -
not heard, nor the dark speck on the water observed.
~"14.
Towards Tuesday evening the breeze freshened, and it .
continued to blow hard during the night. The Men .
were exhausted, and in the conflict between wearied
nature and hopes of life, they sank into a state between
sleeping and waking, dozing for a minute or two and
then suddenly starting again into consciousness.
About four on Wednesday morning the one who was
in his waking moment saw through the darkness the
loom of a vessel bearing down upon them, and imme-
diately roused his companion. The vessel rapidly
approached and camo within a hundred yards of
them. With all the strength that was left to them
they uttered their cry for assistance, and after a few
seconds' interval, a bright light told that their cry
had been heard and was answered. For two hours
the light burnt like a beacon of safety before their eyes,
but just before dawn it disappeared, and when day
broke no ship was anywhere to be seen. Hope was —.sat
fast giving way to despair when about two hours after
daylight the missing vessel bore down towards them.
This was the Dutch schooner Wilhelm Benklezoon.
The master, when he heard the cry of distress had
immediately brought his ship to, and lay-to till the
morning. In the meantime -the shipwrecked men on id .s 1
the air-raft had drifted to leeward. When the master etas
of the Wilhelm Benklezoon found at daybreak that 4".40,
nothing could be seen, he conjectured from the force ;.'.lllll
and direction of the wind the point to which any
floating wreck or boat would have drifted and bore s
down in that direction. But the sea was running so
high that the master of the little schooner dared . talT
neither to lower a boat nor bring his vessel along- .e'l •
side the raft. He feared in the first case that be should .1:1111t
uselessly sacrifice his own men without rescuing' the t-
others, and in the latter case his vessel would swamp /- osal
the raft. He therefore beckoned to the two men to ' *
quit the raft and swim to the schooner. Thoroughly
exhausted by their three days' exposure, they miss *a"
trusted their powers of swimming even this short dis-
tance; but it was their only hope. Lamont, the
boatsysarn, first made the attempt, and succeeded in -Ass
getting alongside. Meantime the schooner and raft at vs
had again separated, and the schooner made another swot
tack to give Hooper a chance, He was still more **
exhausted than Lamont; but, thinking it was no .•
worse to be drowned between the raft and the ship •
than le left to perish on the raft, he made the despe-
rate effort, and struck out for the schooners When , ttryll
he got alongside his hands were too benumbed even to 44/cll
clutch the rope which was held out to him, and he •""saze=
took it between his teeth. The little schooner V771:4
low in the water, and some of the crew, leaning over
and watching their opportunity, caught him by the
hands and so pulled him on board.
"They were unable to stand and almost dead from ear
exposure and weakness from want of food, for it was 46 a
then close upon noon on Wednesday, and they had
eaten nothing since the previous Saturday evening.
But they were brought round by the kindness of Cap-
tain Dorp and his crew, which could not be exceeded. -.4...-
The saiiors gave up their berths to the shipwrecked
men, and nothing was left undone that could add to
their comfort. Since their arrival here, Lamont and -Or
Hooper have been under treatment in the Civil Hos- I sat!
pital., and although still suffering from partial numb- ras
ness and shooting pains in their legs, from prolonged Is;
immersion in the sea, are sufficiently recovered to "1 4
proceed to England in the packet expected to-day.
21 was
"Lamont is married and Hooper is a 'widower.
Their names appeared in the papers among those who - :Lag
, perished, and they will be welcomed by their familisa 'a
ik• e men restored miraculously to life. Altheugh fous• 1131
Lid
days without food, they felt nothing beyond the weak..
ness of exhaustion, and suffered from neither hunger ,"
nor thirst. Neither did they feel pain from the long 1044
immersion in salt water— sensation of all kind having t-
been succeeded by perfect numbness. The records of s-V,4-11
maritime disaster probably contain few oases like :4'42"""
this. We often read of dreadful sufferings from ex- 4sma
posure in open boats, but in the present instance the sf sat
men were drifting about for three days immersed in
the very sea itself, and looking death steadily in the
face. The conductof the master of the Dutch schooner
is beyond all praise, and it is to be hoped will meet --at
s'sasts
some special reward." 4 ;414

!XS

In reference to the rescue of Lamont and 11,Joper, the
following is a translation of the narrative of the incident .49
written by the Dutch captain:— I *tilt
PARTICULARS OF THE MORNING OF 2ND OF DECEM-
BEE, 1874, ON BOARD THE LUGGER, CALLED "WILHELM '
BENICELZOON."
• DECEMBER 2.—Day watch, stiff breeze, heavy sea,
•Sailing with all practicable canvas' and steering S.W. .-,• •'
by \V., and in the mate's watch, quarter-past four
.o'clock, there suddenly was a loud cry, as we under-
stood it, of help. At that cry, as well as at the call.
of the mate, I immediately jumped out of my' berth. ••
There was a dense darkness, and a heavy, showery
(stormy) sky. Hove-to quickly, but cifuld not
ascertain what it was; took in the topsails
quickly as wind would allow, consulted together
to tack about as near as possible to the spot, as -•-tev
we were certain that the sound had come from
human beings, and waited for daylight, hoisting
our white lantern beside our lights. When dr,3,..
broke we saw nothing, though we looked out with two
men in the rigging, but in vain. Being, at a guess,
about the same latitude, it was then already eight 494
o'clock, the sun having fully risen, when I called the .
mate out of the rigging to make sail and continue our
course, always hoping to sight that which we had
heard. When sail had been made we steered three
points out of our course, still hoping, with two men in '
the rigging to look out. Having run a short time, we
discovered an object approaching us; discovered
two men on that object, who made signs to us to come
and help them. Braced sails immediately by the
wind, and bore down upon them, but could
not come close to them because of the heavy „;.,..77
sea, and there being no boat, but planks put to, 4.=
gether and drifting away quickly, one man threw
himself into the water close to the ship. Threw
three ropes to him which he managed to catch easily
and pulled him on board with difficulty, and took him
immediately into the forecastle where a warm stove
was burning, and saved also in the same manner thc.
other. As soon as the second was on board we took
him, like the other one, immediately to the fore.castlo.
although they were stiff and cold, and they also had
swollen legs. They could not move a foot; as soon as
they were below I went to them immediately with a
glass of brandy and dry clothes of my own, being
skipper, and we did what we could to them, the crew
as well as myself and the mate, for they were very ,
weak, and gave them gradually to eat, and gave each
of them a berth of one of the crew. When we saved
them we were in 47.43 N. lattitude, 5.30 W. longitude.
—J. VAN DORI', DZ., Skipper. J. VERBOON, Mate.
t.
Leese

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ONIMI