The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-08-26 00:00:00

NARRATIVE OF THE LOSS OF THE SHIP

EDINBURGH.

The following narrative, which is copied from the Sydney
Commercial Journal of the 20th April, appeared in our second
edition of Tuesday last:—
Toe Edinburgh was a fast sailing barque of 270 tons register,
manned with a crew of twelve persons, including the captain,
and had a full cargo of wool, oil, and cedar, and two male pas-
sengers for Liverpool. She left Sydney Roads on the morning
of the 18th of March, and stood on her course, with light west-
erly winds. During the day of the 29th, Captain Lyall and the
chief officer remarked to each other, that there seemed in the
cabin a closeness in the feeling, and a smell as of something
burnt. It was not, however, sufficient to create any suspicion
of the cause. The remarks were reiterated in the-evening, and
the conversation turned to the subject of wool igniting, and to
aninstance that occurred some eleven years ago to a ship on
her homewards passage, with a similar cargo to themselves.
Still, however, Captain Lyall retired without the least appre
hension. About three o'clock next morning, (the 30th.) the
chief officer came to the bed-side of the captain, saying he was
certain the ship was on fire. Captain L. sprung up. and see-
ing there was a great deal of smoke in the cabin, ordered the
chief officer immediately to wear ship, and make all sail to the N.
He then opened the largest scuttle, when the smoke rushed out
with a force which almost overpowered him. He, however, got
the scuttle closed down again, and called out forall hands imme-
diately to clear away the long-boat, and went on deck, taking
up his chronometer, sextant, chart, and writing-desk. The
crew soon lowered the boat, and got into her two casks of water,
a quantity of biscuit, and sixteen or eighteen pieces of pork,
with the captain's things beforementioned, and a compass, and
also the foretop-mast stay-sail, which they had cut down to rig
the boat, and a studding-sail boom, to serve for a mast. In the
mean time the smoke bad so increased, that the chief-officer in
vain attempted to enter the cabin to save the log-book, and
bring out his watch, and some of his clothes. The heat also be-
came great, and the smoke burst out in volumes up the compa-
nion and through the cabin windows, and began to issue from
the aft hatch. Before four o'clock the heat had become so in-
tense aft, that the man at the helm cried out, he could stand it no
longer. On which Captain L. sent him forward, and lashing
down the tiller„ remained there himself. The flames now be-
gan to appear ,above deck, and to burst from the aft hatches,
and to spread with astonishing rapidity over the ship. The
men were, by this time, all in the boat, and calling on the cap-
tain for God's sake to come away : but he, with an indescri-
bable feeling, kept lingering behind, loath to leave the ship.
The sea was getting up, and the captain seeing the danger of
the boat beating against the ship, took his place in her about
five o'clock, when they shoved off. About this moment their
latitude was 44. 20 5., and their longitude 163 E.—the wind
S.S.E., blowing fresh, and the sea running high, the ship with
foresail and foretopsail set, standing to the N. about two knots
an hour. They allowed the boat to drop astern, and employed
themselves in fitting the mast and rigging the sail. At seven
o'clock, when three miles astern of the ship, they saw her main
and mizen-masts go overboard about the-same time. Having
got sail on the boat, at eight o'clock they were again up with
the ship, and found that the poop and quarter-deck were
burned down to the water edge, the blaze going rapidly for-
ward and issuing with tremendous violence from the main
hatches. The wind being S.S.E., Captain L. thought it better
to steer N.N.W., in the hope of fetching some port of New
South Wales, and at two o'clock, when about six or eight miles
a-head of the ship, they could see that her topsail was
still set, and that she was surmounted by a deep cloud of smoke;
after this they saw no more of her, and they now stood on their
own course, intent only on saving themselves. Captain L. had
hitherto found every one on board attend with the utmostalacrity
to every command he issued, and he now found them calmly and
implicity resigned to his every wish. He now arranged that
there should be two meals a day. at half-past eight in the morn-
ing and half-past four in the afternoon, when they made the re-
lief at the helm, and that the chief officer should lay out the al-
lowance at each meal of one half pint of water, a biscuit, and a
small slice of pork, and ordered that he should be first served,
and out of fourteen portions he should have the smallest.
Throughout that night and the next two days the weather
was moderate, and they were able to keep their course at about
three knots an hour.

On the 3d day (Friday,) it rained and blew fresh, and the sea
got up; still every thing went on regularly with them, and with-
out a murmur,—some talking confidently of falling in with a
vessel, and all eagerly bending their eyes on the horizon, in the
hope of seeing a sail—a hope which the captain however, dis-
couraged, as he knew they were out of the tract of vessels, and
wished them to place their hopes in their own exertions and
speed. On Sunday 3d April, a heavy gale with rain came on
from the S. E. lat. ; at 5 a.m. a tremendous sea broke over and
filled the boat, and she rolled and was on the point of settling,
but that Captain L's. exclamation that the next two minutes
would decide their fate, urged the men to a fury of exertion,
that soon lightened the boat of the water; and enabled them to
congratulate themselves they were again buoyant; but the
pleasure of this escape was sadly lessened when they found that
the sea had washed away every ounce of their bread. They had,
however, little time for reflection on this subject, for twice on
the same morning their boat was again half filled by the heavy
sea breaking in upon them. About noon the gale abated, and for
some days they pursued theircourse N. W., without any accident,
running with moderate breezes about 70 to 80 miles in the 24 hours.
On Saturday, the 9th, they again had very heavy squalls and
rain, and the sun sank with the most dark and threatening aspect,
and every wave towered above them, menacing instant destruc-
tion. Still however their gallant barque rose buoyant o'er the
gushing seas, and her crew sat still and resolute within her feeble
frame. The next day the weather was changed, and they had
light airs and calms. About nine o'clock a.m., a shark caine
alongside and some of the sailors who have a natural antipathy
to sharks, struck it repeatedly with an oar, in order to frighten
it away, but in this they could not succeed, for it clung to the
boat with the most invincible obstinacy ; on seeing this the
captain directed them to endeavour to catch it by throwing a
rope with a running noose over it, which they immediately
did, and captured him with an ease that 'surprised them.
They dared not, however, take him into the boat, but cut him
up as he hung outside, and took him in piecemeal. It then af-
forded a luxurious feast; for, after living ten days on salt pork,
it was a most salutary and refreshing kind of diet. They all
declared they had seen many sharks killed, but never saw one
of half the size caught half so unresistingly, and in it they re-
cognized the intervention of the invisible -hand of Providence,
and felt that, though far and seemingly left to destruction on a
dreary ocean, they were not deserted by a Divine Providence.
At midday they were favoured by a good observation, and found
Sydney Heads bearing W.S.W., distant 150 miles, with light
airs from the N.E., and boat going W.S.W. three and a half
knots the hour. At noon next day the welcome cry was made
of a sail in sight, and all hands were fixed on a sail to wind-
ward, which appeared to be a schooner, laying a course as if
bound to New Zealand. All now was hope, anxiety, and bus-
tle, and a red shirt was tied to the top of the mast, and the
schooner's movements were watched with painful trepidation.
But, alas! the schooner saw them not; she kept her onward
course, and left them to plod their weary way. At nine o'clock
on the morning of Tuesday, the llth, they descried the land
about Botany, and with the wind at N. they stood for it. Next
day at dawn they attempted to pull, but the captain ordered
them to desist, as he saw they had not strength, and it created
in the men a thirst for water, which could not be afforded
them. However, about seven in the morning they saw a cut-
ter to the northwest, and instantly bore away for her, and
about 8 came alongside the Venus, of Sydney, from Woolon-
gong to Sydney, who readily supplied them with a bucket of
bread, and advised them to run for Woolongong, which they
immediately did, and about half-past ten o'clock on Wednes-
day, the 13th instant, they happily landed at that place, having
been fourteen days and ten hours in the open boat. dr. Gray,
the police magistrate of the district, received them in the most
benevolent manner. He conducted Captain L. and the chief
officer to his own residence, and put the crew and passengers
into comfortable lodgings, and supplied them with clothes and
anything they wanted. The inhabitants imitated this good ex-
ample—opened their houses to them, and pressed their hospi-
tality on them. We cannot refrain from particularising that of
Mr. Geo. Brown, who evinced much anxious kindness to them.
This‘gentleman at once nominated the chief officer to the com-
mand of a small vessel of his, with the firm promise of speedy
promotion to a better. On Saturday, the 15th, Captain L., and
most of the crew embarked in the cutter Thomas, and reached
Sydney on Sunday. Captain Towns, of the Brothers, who
happened to be an old friend of Captain Lyall, and was on the
point of sailing for London, immediately saw Captain Lyall,
' and with a gentlemanly frankness and brotherly kindness,
that reflects the highest honour on him, insisting on his
of his company to England, in a manner that de-
partaking
riled refusal, and although not in want of hands, offered to
take all those of the Edinburgh at wages. Such acts are rare,
and well merit record. We cannot close our narrative without
expressing our admiration of the cool and sterling intrepidity,
and the calm and imperturbed judgment exhibited by Captain
L. tgroughout the awful moment of conflagration, and the days
and nights of protracted privation ; neither can we withhold
onr praise of manly patience, seamanlike perseverance, and
quiet obedience of the gallant crew.
On investigation we find there can be no doubt that tae ca-
lamity arose from the ignition of the wool. The oil was all
stowed in the fore part of the ship, there being only one tier aft
the foremast and in contact with it, and nowhere was there wool
within a foot of an oil cask. Aft the oil there was cedar in the
bottom of the ship, and wood on the top of it. The fire must
have originated between the main and mizen masts, for the
smoke was first thrown back upon the cabin, and the main and
mizen masts both went overboard at the same time. We hear
that it is thought to have arisen from some bales of wool that
had not been repacked at Sydney, and had been stowed in that
very part which all things corroborate to prove must be the very
part, whence the fire came. If this be the case, it must be an
awful warning of the necessity that every bale of wool should
be repacked in Sydney, in order to prevent the possibility of
its being shipped moist.