Star.
London, England, 1826-03-20 00:00:00

MOST DREADFUL SHIPWRECK.

Friday we gave an account of the most distressing
shipwreck of the Fi'ances Mary, of New Brunswick, the
greatest part of whom crew had perished under cir-
cumstances the most horrible ; the remains of the crew
were rescued by the BLONDE, Lord BYRON. We nave
insert a fuller account of the melancholy catastrophe:
Oa the evening of am ith instant,,elien going at the
rate of twelve kr. ts, with a strong breeze, a vessel to
leeward, in distr ss, was providentially descried from
the mast head, for which the BLootse immediately ligre
up and bo4rded. S'm proved to be the Frances Mary,
a ship of 398 tons, of and from St. John's, New Bruns-
wick, belonging to Capt. Patterson, and consigned to
;Campbell and Mackie, of Lit rpool. She was a com-
plete wreck, and water-logged, and only kept afloat by
her cargo of timber; her main-mast and main-top-sail
yard were the only spars standing, and all her boats
were washed away.
We have received, since the above was written, the
following account of the occurrences on board the
Frances Mary, 398 tons burthen, John Kendall, mas-
ter, laden with timber, from St. John's New Bruns-
wick, bound to Liverpool, consigned to Campbell and
Mackie:--" Sailed from St.Jolm's, Jan. 18.-- Feb.l, strong
gales from the W.N.W. carried away the main-topmast
and wizen-mast head; hove to; gat boats sails in the
m tin rigging, to keep the ship to the wind. At eleven,
P.H. shipped a heavy sea, which. walled away the
caboose, jolly best, and disabled five men.—Feb: nary 2,
cleared away the wreck, and reiade• sail before the
wind: strong breezes.—Feb. 5, 11 A.m. strong gales,
with a heavy sea ; clewed the sails up, and hove to—
head to the southward; shipped a sea, %%h et carried
away the long-boat, companion, tiller, unshipped the
rudder, the best bower chain, and washed a man over-
board, who was afterwards saved. At 11. 10. another
heavy sea struck us, which stove our ssern in.—
Cut away our foremast, and both bower anchors, to
keep the ship to the wind ; employed in getting what
provisions we could—by knocking the bow port out,
saved .50 lbs. of bread, and 5 lbs. of cheese, wbich we
stowed in the main top; got the mutee's wife and fe-
male passenger up,whilst we were clearing away below,

lightiping the *ship; Most a the people slept in the
daylight, found Patrick Cooney hanging by his
legs to the catharpins, dead, from fatigue ; committed
his body to the deep:—Feb. 6, at ri..;ht A.ll saw a
strange sail making towards us; made signal of dis-
tress-a-estranger spoke Os, and remained in company 24
hours, but received no assistance, the Americah making
an excuse that the sea was running too high. Made a
tent of spare canvas on the forecastle—put the people
on a short allowance of a quarter o 1 a biscuit a day.—
Feb. 8, saw a brig to leeward ; strong gales.—Feb. 9,
ten A.m. observed the same vessel to windward—mse!e
the signal of distress; stranger bile lip, and strewed
American colatirs.—Feb. 10, he spoke us, asking how
long we had been in that situation, and what we in-
tended to do—if we intended leaving the ship 2—an-
swered yes ; he then asked if we had any rigging ? said
yes ; night coming on, and blovVing bar d—saw no morel
of the stranger. Suffered much from hunger and thirst.
On about Feb. 11, saw a large ship to the northward ;
did not speak her ; wore head to the northward. At V; is ,
time all our provisions were out—suffered much from
hunter, having received no nourishment for nine days!
—F b. 12, de,.arted this life, James Clarke (seaman);
read prayers, and committed his body ta the deep: we
were at this" time on a half A gill of water a-day, and
"suffering much from hunger; during the while period
of being on the wreck, we were wet from top to toe.—
Feb. 2`..l„lehn Wilson (seaman) died, at 10 A.M. pre-
served tl.e body of the deceased; cut him up in -clear-
ters, washed them overboard, and hung them up on
pios. Feb. 23, J. Moore died, and was thrown overboard,
having eaten part of him, such as the liver and heart.
From this date to Saturday the sth of March, the fol-
lowing number perished from hunger—Henry Davis,
a Welsh boy ; Alexander Kelly, seaman; John Jones,
apprentice-boy, nephew of the owner; James Frier,
cook: Daniel Jones, seaman; John Hutchinson, sea-
man; and John Jones, a boy ; threw the last named
overboard, his blood being bitter; also, James Frier,
who was working his passage home, under a promise
of marriage to Ann Saunders, the female passenger,'
who attended oa the master's wife; and who, when she
heard of Frier's death, shrieked a loud yell, then, snatch-
ing a cup from Clerk (mate), cut her late intended hus-
band's throat, and drank his blood, insisting that she had
the greatest right to it—a scuffle ensued, and the heroine
(the words of the narrator) got the better of her adver-
sary, and then allowed him to drink one cup to her
two!—Feb. 26, on or about this day an English brig hove
in sight— hoisted the E.,glish downward—stranger
hauled his wind towards us, and hauled his foresail Op
when abreast of us, kept his course, about one mile dis-
tance, set his foresail, and we soon lost sight of him;
fresh breeze, with a little rain—the sea quite smooth,
but he went off, having shewn English colours; had he
at this time taken us off the wreck, much of the subse-
quent dreadful suffering would have been spared us.—
March 7, his Majesty's ship BLONDE came in sight, and
to our relief, in lat. 44.4.3 N. long. 21.57. W. Words
are quite inadequate to express our feelings, as well as
those which Lord Byron and our deliverers most evi-
dently possessed, when they found they had come to
rescue six of their fellow-creatures (two of them females)
from a most awful, lingering, but certain• death. It
came on to blow during the night a fresh gale, which
ould, no doubt, have swept us overboard. Lieut. Gam-
bier came in the ship's cutter to bring us from the wreck.
He observed to us, " You have yut, I perceive, fresh
meat ;" to which we were compelled to reply, "No,
Sir, it iPpart of a man, one of our unfortunate crew ! it
was our intention to put ourselves on an allowance even
of this food, this evening, had not you come to our
relief." The master's wife, who underwint all the
most horrid sufferings which the human understanding
can imagine, bore them much better than could possi-
bly have been expected. She is now, alth,iugh 'much
emaciated, a lespestaL le good-looking woman, about 25
years of age, and the mo her of a boy 7 years of age. But
what most have bees the extremity of want to which she
-.v is driven, when she eat the brains of one of the appren-
tices, saying it was the most de.icious thing she ever
tasted ; and it is still more .melsocholy to relate, the per-
son whose brains s'ie was thus forced by
hunger to eat.liad
been three times wrecked before, but was providentially
picked up by a vessel, after being 22 days on the wreck
water-logged ; but, in the present instance, he perished,
having survived similar sufferings for a space of 29 days,
and then became food for his remaining shipmates Ann
Saunders, the other female, • had more strength in her
calamity than most of the m-n : she per formed the duty
of cutting up and cleaning the dead bod es, keeping two
knives in her monkey jacket; and when the breath was
announced to have flown, she would sharpen her knives,
bleed the deceased in the neck, drink his blood, and cut
him up as usual. From want of water, th-se who pe-
rished drank their own urine and salt water: they became
foolish, crawling upon their hands round the deck (when
they could) and died generally raving mad."