The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-16 00:00:00

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power in the country. They have to assure the
future.

May God grant that they may succeed. May
God bless the king, who has prepared this mea-
sure; and may his hand protect the life of our king
and lord. Long live the king.

APPALLING SHIPWRECK.

EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY LIVES
LOST.

The details of the dreadful loss of the clipper
ship Flora Temple, Capt. Johnson, master, from
Macao for Havannah, to which we briefly alluded
a few days since, have come to hand, from which it
will be seen that the whole of the unhappy crea-
tures on board, Coolie labourers, numbering 850,
perished.
The Flora Temple was a first class ship, and hav-
ing been chartered for the conveyance of Coolies,
sailed from Macao on the morning of the Bth of
last October. Her crew, including officers, were
about fifty men, and four days after leaving port
they encountered a heavy gale of wind from the
southwest, with a high sea. Sail was reduced, and
although on the morning of the 14th the gale had
abated, it continued southwest, and Capt. Johnson
declined making more sail, being apprehensive
that a current might set the ship to the east-
ward, in the direction of reefs which were

marked upon the chart. Tho sights obtained at
noon were good, and the position of the ship ap-
peared to be so far (30 miles) to the westward of the
most westerly reefs in the latitude in which they
then were, that the captain, having directed a good
lookout to. be kept, apprehended no danger from
standing on until 8 p.m., at which hour he had
given instructions that the vessel should be put
about. 'At 7.20 p.m. he came on deck from the tea
table, and, in answer to inquiry, was informed by
the officer of the watch that a good lookout had
been kept from the topsail-yard. The officer was
sent forward to see, however, and had barely
reached the forecastle; when the cry of " Hard up"
was heard from the look-out. The helm was imme-
diately put hard up, and the spanker lowered, and
no sooner was this done than " Hard down" was
heard from the officer, who by this time had
come aft again to the gangway. It was then
discovered that the ship was within a short

tance of the breakers, Which c.uld now be dis-
tinctly seen and heard, and which extended in a
curved line from about four points on the starboard
bow to about three points on the port bow. It
seemed impossible a long ship like the Fl )ra Temple
could escape them, and although the yards were
braced round, and the ship hove aback, she struck
first slightly, and then very soon afterwards several
times with a tremendous crash, the breakers run-
ning very high alongside: Pieces of her timber and
planking floated up on her port side, and after some
more very heavy bumps she remained apparently
immoveable, with a heavy list to port, and the water
rapidly increased till it reached between the decks,
where the Coolies were. It was found impossible
to extricate her.

While this was going on (indeed, almost imme-
diately after the ship struck) a fear that the coolies
would rise and murder all on board seemed to
have possessed the minds of the crew, and to such
a height did this rise that the captain (having at
the time, however, no intention of abandoning the
ship), had the two quarter boats lowered, and placed
an officer and five men in each, with orders to re-
main close to the ship, so that refuge and assistance
might be at hand. The crew appeared to have been
thoroughly unmanned, their only anxiety was to
get out of the ship, and but for the captain and his
brother, and a few others on board, the boats would
have left the ship absolutely unprovided with the
necessaries of life.

These boats were lowered at 10 o'clock. At 12
o'clock the other boats were got out, and there re-
mained the long boat, which the panic-stricken
men had declared it was impossible to get out.
Only 15 of the crew remained on board, and the
labour and difficulty in getting the boat out was
immense. At length it was got over th© side at 4
a.m., and with its crew passed Barely through the
breakers. Before leaving the ship the lead was
hove ; four fathoms were got under the bows and
stern, and three fathoms amidships. Immediately
through the breakers there was no bottom at 14
fathoms. _ _

At break of day the ship appeared to be almost 1
without motion. Her masts were standing, she had
a strong list to port, her back was broken, anti the
sea making a clear breach over her starboard quar-
ter. The coolies, who had remained below all
night, were now up and clustered on the upper
decks. The captain, after passing round the
northern extremity of the lines of breakers, joined
the starboard-quarter boat, which had the smaller
boats in company, the port-quarter boat with the
second mate in charge having deserted during the
night, alarmed probably at the guns which were fired
from the ship, and which to them seemed to
denote the dreaded outbreak of the Coolies. The
crews of the dingier were then transferred to the
longboat and quarterboat, and at 9 a.m. sail was
made to the westward. The wind then rose to a
severe gale from W.S.W., with a tremendous sea
and heavy rain, and the boats parted company.
From Saturday, the 15th, till the following Friday
the gait continued without abatement, and serious
apprehension was felt for the safety of the starboard
quarterboat, which contained Mr. Marshall, the
mate, nine men, and two boys, and the port quar-
terboat, which had in her the second mate, Mr. Wal-
ton, and five men. The longboat contained 31, in-
cluding Capt. Johnson, his brother, and Mr. A. P.
Childs, the surgeon. Throughout the seven days
while the gale lasted, this boat was hove to under
a close-reefed mainsail with a bucket veered out to
20 fathoms. Most of them had saved nothing but
what they stood in. The boat was an open one,
and they were drenched with the seas which broke
over them, and with the rain which fell night and
day. They were covered with salt water boils and
suffered nine pain. A biscuit and half a pint of
water a day was all they dared to venture on, and
sleep was almost impossible. On the Saturday
the wind and sea abated. Fortunately the cap-
tain had saved his sextant and a chart, and as they
found the boat drifted by the gale as far as 13
degrees N., it was determined to make for
Touron, the French settlement in Cochin China.
On the Wednesday, 12 days after leaving the
wreck, land was made to the south of Touron.
The boat was made fast to a fishing stake all
night on account of the strong current which
had swept her to the south the day before, and on
the following evening they came in sight of the
French squadron. Finding it impossible to weather
the Cape that night they put into a small fishing
harbour, where they were most hospitably treated,
and on the next evening, the 28th, they reached
Touren. They were received on board his Imperial
Majesty's steamer Gironde, and Capt. Johnson at
once put himself in communication with the French
Admiral, M. Page, and begged him to send in search
of the missing boats as well as to rescue the Coolies.
With the greatest readiness the request was com-
plied with, and the Gironde was despatched to the
scene of the disaster, Capt. Johnson, his brother, and
Mr. Childs, the surgeon, accompanying her. They
came in sight of the red on the afternoon of the 2d
of November. The sea still rolled and broke
as before ; but no remnant could be seen of
the ship till on proceeding closer in a boat her port-
side from the main chain forward could be observed
floating. Of the 830 coolies no traces remained.
Close to the reef, within a short distance of the
wreck on the S.E. side, the boat sounded, and found
no bottom at 27 fathoms, and within a mile to north-
west there was no bottom at 70 fathoms. The
breakers extended about half a mile in a curved line.
They were very narrow not over 150 yards in width.
The position, according to the calculation on board
the Gironde, 10 19 N., 113 13 E., while Captain
Johnson made it in 10 16 N. and 113 20 E. Nothing
remained to be done. The unhappy Coolies had,
doubtless, perished and the Gironde at once shaped
a course for Manilla, where she arrived on the
evening of the Bth of November.
It is stated that it was impossible to make any
attempt to save the Coolies. Captain Johnson and
his brother are very humane and courageous men,
but the crew were so terrified that it was almost
.by
exertions beyond belief on the part of the captain,
his brother, and a few others, that the safety of
that
o f the
crew even was secured. It appears, however,
they had some reason for distrusting tlieCoolies at
this crisis. On the Monday after they left
.Macao,
all seemed comfortable and cheerful ; teir food
was plentiful and good, and their_.state was well
cared for, the necessary order and discipline among
them being enforced by their own head men
exclusively. On the Tuesday morning, at seven
o'clock, however, three days after leaving Macao,
the watch on deck being scattered about the ship,
and the guard at the port gate of the barricade
which was erected between the Coolies and crew
(who slept aft, being away from his post, the
coolies, who ha collected on deck in large numbers,
suddenly fell upon the guard at the starboard gate,
struck him on the head with an iron belaying-pin
as he was stooping down, drew out his sword and
having cut him frightfully, afterwards, with cruel

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