The Shasta courier., 1867-02-23
SHASTA COURIER.
The story of an English iatch--A Two
Years Voyage.

In a schooner sixty tuns smaller than that
of Mr.. Bennett. but iron. built. an English
vachtman has recently returned from a cruise
which is to that of the Henrietta what that
| of the Henrietta is to trip from Cowes to
Cherbourg The story, too, has sadness
about it which makes 1t. perchance none the
! less suitable a yarn for Christmas time, or
| to the Yacht match itself. Captain Hannah,
| of the schooner watch Themis, one hundred
and forty tuns, left England in April, 1864,
| two wears and a half ago. His wife went
with him he sailed his own ship; his chief
| Ger had been a Lieutenant in the navy :;
and the crew consisted of eleven others all
told To touch at Madeira, at Teneritfe, at
Rio all this was holiday work it was just
the ideal way of passing a Summer that
many an Englishman has yearned for; but
afterwards the Themis bore steadily south,
on track which few people ever followed
for pleasure.' She touched at Port St. Julian,
that i'll omened harbor where first Magellan,
and, afterward, Drake, had to erect gibbet
and use it; and then, on the Both dav of
| August, she fairly entered Magellan's Straits.
the navigation of which though not so ter
ribe to modern seamanship as it seemed to
the brave old fellows who first gave us the
chance of trying at all-is yet, about as
unlike the ordinary notion of yachts proper
work as can be well imagined Still, did
not Lord Duffern sail till be saw Jan Maven
in tie north, cone of snow through the
gray Arctic clouds A fig for the Straits
of Magellan. Exceptionally fortunate, Cap.
tain lIannam got in twelve days through the
drearv channel which took even lucky
Francis Drake seventeen to traverse, and
which the unfortunate Byron, g Foulweather
Jack" could not clear in seven weeks
Off Massafuera-a lonely island in about
the same latitude as Juan Fernandez, but
further to the westward-Captain Hannam's S
lieutenant died and thenceforth the duties
of command devolved exclusively upon Han
nam himself. He touched al Callao, and
leaving on the 18th of December, sailed right
across toward the Sandwich Islands, a dis
tance of over five thousand miles sea way.
In forty DAYS he reached Owyhee-the scene
Of Cooks heroic death, not yet a hundred
years ago-and spent the greater part of
1865 in cruising about that archipelago. =
Leaving it IN November. he called home
ward putting in at the Marquesas but be-
fore he regained Valparaiso there was another
death on board, and Captain IIannam was "A
widower. We shrink from intrudng on
private sorrow, but it may be that this loss
could find. And rough enough in all con
science, it was He determined to sail back
through the Straits Of Sarmento, a branch,
spreading to the northward Out of Magelan's,
and named after the gallant leader of
Spanish colony wLo perlshed there msera-
bly, nearly three centuries ago. Hannah
entered it near the dismal spot where the
Wager was lost from Hudson's squadron,
and he stayed two months in that dreary
region of almost perpetual fog and bitter
cold, exploring every inlet, examining every
anchorage, sounding every channel, while
the storms came laundering up from the
South Polar ocean, and the long waves broke
on the most desolate land in the " hole world
Leaving it at length, his self-imposed task
being thoroughly done. he touched at Mon
tevi1eo, and then made the best of his way
to England. The remains of his wife-for
there had been coffin on board all through
the lonely time-were buried in Dorsetshre
churchyard; and it was but a week or two
ago that the Southampton shipwrights were
busily at work dismantling the brave little
Themis.