The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-09 00:00:00

was when they were beginning to beat us aft. The back-
stays and rigging were coir ; they were not wire. There
was one sailor drawing water with a bucket each side of
the gangway, and all the others were on the pumps. The
men were afterwards called to other stations, and then pas-
sengers came. But when the house caught fire they ran
away. I sang out for them to come back, but they would
not, and it would have been of no use either ; it was like
throwing a drop on a fire. They were panic-struck I
could not get any one on the pump, except Hancock, A. 8.,
who stayed; but we two could do no good—two men on a
big puntp—and so we went away. I relieved a man at the
gangway drawing water, and soon another sailor came and
relieved me. We could not stop long in one place, the smoke
was too stifling When I saw the flames burst out of the
quarter-hatch (the hatches on the upper deck were open all
night always, those on the main deck were battened down)
I went to try and find a lifebelt. I went to the longboat,
where there were always a dozen and a half or two dozen
kept. But the belts were all gone. Then I went aft on
the poop to get one of the eight life-buoys, and they were
all gone. They were all chucked over to tho‘e who were
struggling in the water alongside the capsized boat, which
had been capsized before, but I did not see it go over. All
I saw was it, bottom up, alongside the poop, and all the
people struggling there. Then I went across to the port
boat and I heard the second mate (Mr. Macdonald) say that
the crew were not to allow any passengers in the boat with-
out permission; at all events, we were not to allow the pas-
sengers to crowd in the boat, and he statioxed men along
for bhat purpose. I got in the boat, and in two minutes
afterwards she was lowered away. When she was half-
way down the second mate came down the fall. While
we were lowering away there were people sliding down
over our heads into the boat, and they were jumping into
It and swimming to it. Wj, two more we should have
sunk We managed to gW away quick. There were
then thirty-five in the boat. Next day we picked
up another man. Then I, Bentley, Lewis, and Mr.
Macdonald went to the starboard boat. Hamilton was
in it already. We pulled away from the ship as fast
as we could. In doing so one of the oars got broke in
shoving off the side, but where the spare oar was I cannot
make out. The balers out of both the boats got lost. They
were in the boats in the daytime • I saw them. But we
picked up some water-tins which the emigrants used float-
ing about, and we knocked the tops off them and used them
as balers. The starboard boat did not succeed in picking tip
any tins, but Mr. Romaine gave us one when Ave changed,
and we cut the top off and stopped the mouth with
rag, and
.oso .made a second baler out of that. Be-
fore taking us on board and this arrangement the men
In the boat had to bail with their caps. They tore out the
air-tight tins encased in wood from the sides to use as
balers, but they were of very little use; they only shovelled
up water. In the boat all we did was to lend one another a
hand about the boat ; and there was not much talk among us.
The biggest, fattest, and healthiest-looking men went off first.
It was not from them that the blood was obtained, but from
the other men. I only ate twice. I drank whenever a vein
was opened. I felt better on the last two days than a few
days before. I had little hopes, but I kept up my spirits till
the day I was picked up. I felt better when the bark passed
us, for it gave me hope. We thought we were on the track
of them thee. I intended keeping myself up to the last if
I could. We made the change between the port and star-
board boat by going (us four) from the port to the starboard
boat as soon as we sighted the other boat. In the boat we
thought more of beinlpicked up than of anything else I
had two shirts on me when I turned out, for I was cold
In going to bed and put two on. The nights were cold,
too, in the boat when we used to get the water over us; but
afterwards, when warm weather came to us, the sun was
burning hot in the day, and it was so when we were picked
up. M'Neill had nothing, and I gave him one of my two
shirts. We shared everything. The baker lead no trousers,
and Lewis gave him the "dungaree S' trousers which he wore
over the others. "Jerry "had a big coat and muffler round
his head, and a waistcoat and a big pair of corduroy trousers,
and they made him give the -comforter to a man who had
nothing on by telling him he would have to give it. Mr.
Macdonald said that. Macdonald had no coat, and he gave
his waistooat to a man. He had his nightcap on, and he gave
that to a man. I was so well that I Could eat biscuit at once
when I was on board the British Sceptre. There was a bit
of biscuit in our boat—a crumb about the size of a half-
crown. Bentley picked it up and gave it to his little boy.'
"These statements (continues The Timss) appear to bear
the impress of truth, just like Macdonald's quotation of the
captain's words when spoken to about the boats,—' No; put
the fire out. Do your best, Mr. Macdonald.' They reveal
a more methodical series of arrangements for extinguishing
the fire than at first appeared. Cotter's memory appeared
very good, and in a list he gave of the persons in the two
boats he said he was sure he had mentioned all the seamen
in the boats and all the emigrants whose names he knew
To remove doubts, more painful than the certainty of loss,
it will be well-to quote his recollections fully. The quarter-
master, Crompton, who had been steering when the fire
broke out, jumped overboard on the starboard side when
Cotter was on the poop, 'He probably intended to get on
the capsized boat,' said Cotter, but perhaps he really made
for one of the life-buoys. The sea was then full of pas-
sengers struggling, and they probably pulled him under.'
Several babies under two years of age died on the way out,
and two hours before the fire broke out Mrs. Fitzgerald, the
schoolmaster's wife, wrii delivered of a still-born child.
Nothing was seen of her or of her husband. It was the
starboard boat which, at first capsized, afterwards lived and
brought five men alongside the British Sceptre, of whom
one was already dead, on was mad, and three survived.
If, therefore, it can be said of any one that he WWI in the
starboard boat, and that he is not one of the survivors,
Lewis, Macdonald, and Cotter, his fate is no longer uncertain.
There were, according to Edward Cotter, in the starboard
boat thirty persons. No one of them was a woman. They
had all, except the four from the port boat, been on 'the
spar (one of the masts) first before they righted the boat, and
. some of them, he said, were half-drowned in the attempt
to right the boat. Anderson, a Scotch emigrant, died in the
boat; so did Bunt, of Cornwall, who was with his wife on
the spar and saw her let go her hold and die. There was
Lewis, of Birmingham, an emigrant--not the quartermaster
Lewis, who is saved. His son was in the other boat. There
was Bentley, of Manchester, who joined the boat with Mac-
donald ; and his boy was in it from the first. There was one
of the Mahers, a boy about 12 or 13. His elder brother was
In the port boat. There were Bickersteth, Reeves, M'Bride,
and 'Jerry,' from a country place in Cork, who said
his father left the farm to his brother and his brother
gave him some money to emigrate. On seeing o,
list of the emigrants Cotter said this man was Jere-
miah Leuchan. There were Tom Pascoe and Bill Eagles.
To these 12 emigrants add seven of the crew. Cotter is sure
there were no others of the crew, and the eleven whose
names are not known must have been male emigrants. Of
the sailors there was 'Scottie' M'Neill, able seaman, who
was half-drowned before he got into the boat, and was no
help at all. He was in Macdonald's watch. There was
Robert Hamilton, the man of colour, who had been in the
boat all along, and yet remained to die on board the British
Sceptre. There was King, the emigrants' cook, and Cope,
the baker, together with Macdonald, Lewis, and Cotter.
"The port boat. under Romain had 32 passengers in her
of whom eight or nine were women. Macdonald's boat gave
her a wide berth, for some of those in the port boat wished
to come into his. It was lower in the water than Macdonald's,
and while it was difficult to keep the male emigrants from
jumping up when the water came in upon them and so
rocking the boat, it was thought likely to be more *difficult
still to keep the women quiet. The boat parted limn ha
consort in a stormy night. The chanee, of her paesengerd
surviving is thus small, although if they do we might not
yet have heard of their escape. A vessel going to Mauritius
or the Cape, or going with the same speed on which the
Cospatriok reckoned to New Zealand, would not
by this time have been able to communicate with
London if it picked them up However that may be, the
following are the persons who, according to Cotter's recollec-
tion, have the doubtful chance of safety which the port
boat afforded. There were William and Catherine Harvey,
brother and sister, of Belfast; Ms. Marsh and his wife, Mr.
Whitehead and his wife, with their baby eleven days old,
Mr. Carey and his wife, Mary Shea, the elder Maher, aged
twenty-one, a son of the Lewis who was in the other boat;
Colley, a constable among the single men; Bityne, Byron, or
Barron, a Scotchman, picked up on a "spar: and a boy
named Wray. One of the emigrants told them that Wray
threw his thirteen children overboard and then jumped in
himself. However, Wray, the father, is in the official list
of emigrants only credited with nine children, and this boy
reduces still more the number who were thrown in. We was
not picked up on a spar; he was in the boat which was
safely lowered. Of the crew there were in the boat beeldes
Charles Romaine, first officer; Thomas Doughery, quarter-
master ; Charlie Cunningham, quartermaster, of Bristol, *ho
left a wife and children; Turvey, A. 8., of London Boscobie,
LB., a Greek, whose came has been previously given as
Rusken ; Frank Bellifanti, A. 8., a Greek; Nicolls, A.B.' •
Hancock, LB, of Richmond; Langdon, A. 8., and Wood.
Wood was a lad fresh from the C.hichester. Nearly all the
Names of those mentioned can be readily identified in the
lists kept by the owners and by the Agent-General for New
Zealand. We published these on Tuesday and Wednesday
last. It may save some confusion to mention that the long-
boat is the boat which Maedonald sometimes called 'the
pinnace.'