The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-05-04
THE NEW CRUSOES.
Extraordinary Adventures and Suffer-
fnVs of the Passengers and Crew of the
Wrecked Emigrant Ship Strathmore.

sea furnished a tale more remarkaele,
as regards human suffering and human
endurance, than that of the emigrant
shin Strathmore. The vessel-a fine,
new clipper, in the Australian trade
sailed from London for New Zealand
on the 18th of April, 1875, carrying a
general cargo and So souls, including
passengers and complement. As months
rolled on, and no scraps of tidings came
to hand respecting the handsome ship,
apprehension deepened into certainty
She was given up at Lloyd's for lost,
entered in the fatal catalogue of the
craft s'not since heard Of" and tears
were shed by the friends of the ships
company and passengers, as for those
never to be seen or heard OF more.
Meanwhile, the Strathmore, doomed to
a different end than that imagined, car
ried her perilous cargo safely round the
Cape and out into the great Southern
Ocean, and had gone on prosperously
enough, in spite of an insubordinate
and drunken crew, until she reached the
neighborhood of the Crozet Islands.
This is a solitary group, comprising the
IAOChS anu L hOiNO n POS-
Ties" midway between Prince Edward s
Island and Kerguelen's Land, and about
% degrees southwest of St. Paul's,
where the Megera was wrecked. The
Captain, deceived by foggy weather,
thought himself to the southwark Of
these islets; but on the night of the last
dav of June the vessel suddenly ran at
full speed upon submerged rocks, and
in an instant terrible confusion took
the place of whatever order and sea-
manship had before prevailed. The first
intimation of danger conveyed to the
passengers was the frightful crash and
grinding of the ship, followed by the
voice of the captain crying that all was
lost, and that each must shift for him
self. Were not this man dead, the ac-
counts which we receive of his behavior
would call for the seyerest comments :;
but he was among the first to perish,
overturned, apparently, by the heavy
sea, in the boat which he and his chief
officer fastened to launch. The after
part Of the vessel was soon covered with
water, but the bows were jammed upon
the reef, and when morning broke a
certain portion of the crew and passen-
gers managed to get the other boats
afloat, and to rearcht the island upon the
outlying ridge of which they were
stranded. Many of the remaining peo-
pie had already been drowned in trying
to escape or were washed into the sea,
including a whole family named Good
ridge of ten individuals. Those left on
board chung to the upper rigging of the
breaking ship, some of them for as
long as 10 hours, before the boats came
back from the shore, and took them from
their desperate position. 1t must be
remembered that July at the Crozets
would be the depth of winter, and the
bitter cold experienced during that pro-
longed exposure killed at least one of
the sufferers. Eventually the task of
rescue was completed to the extent of
landing upon the island as many as 40,
all told, 80 passengers, officers and
crew having persisted. Shortly after
the last man had been taken from the
wreck she heeled over into deep water,
went down, leaving no vestige behind;
and all the stores which these unhappy
people saved from her consisted of few
casks of liquor, some cases of preserves
in tins, and barrel of gunpowder.
The island upon which our country
men were thus cast is one of n group
the most desolate in the world. No hu-
man being inhahits that solitary archi-
pelago, which, dashed by tempests and
a rolling ocean, is never visited except
by an adventurous whaler. An eXplor-
alton of the place where they found
showed that it was a gaunr
and naked rock mile long, with a
shore line of five to six miles in extent,
without trees or shelter Of any kind, and
exposed to the full fury of tie winter
blasts and surf. The boats were all
Swamped, so that there was no chance
Of crossing to any of the larger islands
which were visible; and on this misera-
ole speck of naked reef they must stay
and try to exist. Happily there was
found a spring of pure water which !
never failed them, and thus one great |
necessity of life was secured. OF food |
here was only single source, and that |
vas in the immense quantity of sea- |
birds which frequented the spot. In
albatrOsses, frigate birds, |
yulls, and the like were found resident |
IN the isle; their eggs were scattered |
N all sides, and their young afforded |
IN easy prey, being so entirely unusued |
o man that they and the parent birds
Gould be captured with the hand or
over with a stick. The survi-
.ors hoisted the mast of the life-boat
m an eminence, with a blanket for a
lag, and set regular watch to signal
NY passing vessel They ran up rude
helters for the weaker ones first, includ-
NO lady and her child, and afterward
to put all hands under some
ind of cover. The people were divid-
d into messes, and arrangements were
aade fairly to distribute the birds, the
ggs, and whatever else came in the
eneral stock. They utilized the tins in
7hich the preserves were packed for
ooking vessels, and having found GER
ain coarse grasses and wild herbs
rowing upon the few fiat portions of
heir wretched territory, they boiled
lese, and so in all probability averted
ne danger of scurvy. For fuel they
ad at first the broken planks of their
oats and the packing-eases, but this
BON gave out, and the cold would
ave probably killed many but for
he discovery that the fires could be kept
D with the skins and bones of the sea-
wi, which they must have captured in
Extraordinary numbers, seeing that dur
20 the six months of their stay upon {
lie island the curious fuel sufficed them {
II every need. DR.. Livingstone once
d the fires of his steamboat on the
ovuma River with elephants ribs, bat
elton has never ventUred on an incl
ent so strange as that the cooking and
arming of nearly fifty people should !
i've been done during half year with
e skins and legs of albatrosses, guile !
OTIS, and kittiwakes. And the strange :
ing is that they supported health and :
rength very fairly on their perpetual l
emu of oily bird-fesh and eggs. Only |
re died in all that long period of con- |
lement on the island, including child
ID two men who, having injured
md and foot respectively, suffered T
ON fatal gangrene, the too natural re- Q
1t of such a life. Salt to season the Z
ernal omelets they would get of course c