The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-05-18
Fifteen Months on q Desolate Island.


island. The Trinity arrived off Heard S
. Island. October 2, 1880, and landed
two white men and two negroes, with
provisions enough for three months, and
left them there to kill sea-elephants and
lay ia stock of oil. The bark then
proceeded round toward the southeast
s end of the island, where it was proposed
satos land another party with the same
object. The sea, however, rose too
high, and no boats could be landed.
She lay at anchor here until October 16,
waiting for chance to reach the shore,
but the weather got worse till at
midnight, on this day heavy storm
burst on her The Trinity lay about
three-quarters of mile from the shore,
having two anchors ontrwith a ridge of
reefs on the southwest and heavy gale
blowing from the northeast. She was
gradually being driven on the rocks,
and on the 18th was driven on shore TO
save the crew.@gAil t~pft safely, al
though esen neg ocs were frost6iften.
From fnsH Tin Until rescue, on january
ID, 1859 The unfortllnates lived on this
uninhabita bic island without any com
munieatie41 with Die Sfstef world. About
aaisn ight onStlS1. first night of their
soieurn on the island Esmond, happen
N 70 xal lz.dewn % the shore with two
ueRroes, saw the ship give a weather.
ssssrosi and with e violent lurch, she got
clear OF Che beach and fioated away,
taking, with her. six months provisions
g Ihis was the finishing blow. to them, who
g now had nothing but the resources of
thesisland and ths<fex pfsxisionss they
had saved to depend ozE hera xrew q
kind of wild cab5age IN tRe island in
plenty, and tbs. Q&ets1aK with the
flesh Of the sea-eieph &ats ana 1e6pards,
formed their ehief 4lIsfeIiaa1ee. nere
were no quadrup 81 50 3fsISnd f1self,
but there was fortaz plenty offresh
= water. The party lived aAsie {fr 1l1anties
which hadbeen pfevfoiisl lslllflt bys Some
whaling crew, made of wood, stores and
sod. The weather was always cold. 1t.
q. was below.th freezing point when they
landed, and Summer brought no change
= OF any consequence, being situated in
1.-The antipoaess The months of June,
July and August the coolest, the
darkest and the dreariest, and at this
period of the year they only had about
threeshoprsd aylighN il the twenty -four.
sgbTig6tays wDtfing the whole fifteen
asamonths strong gales blew all the time. A
sasxT The onl occupation of the men besides
sleep each day. was patrolling the beach
49, u search of food. When they had suffi-
acient for immediate wants they stored up
e ssfor rainy day. They didn't organize
8. IN anyway either for recreationor prayer
service. They had. no cards and no
sac games Their experience was one va
sd can't dreariness, relieved occasionally by
sitting round the blubber fire spinning, !
g sailor like long yarns. With few
exceptions they did not suffer hunger
- once they became accustomed to the only
food theyseogh get This consisted Of
the flesh of the sea elephants they caught, |
but fora long time many of the crew
could not get used sto.it. There was no
fuel on the Island. They used the fat
'sssoily blabber of the sea-elephant i'm its
1@ place. When they had sufficient biub-j
- Der for fuel they extracted the oil from
What they had on hand and stored it in
seasks. La this way they had accumula-
ted about 500 barrels in measure of oil /
when rescued, and they left it all on the /
island to be at some future day taken
> away as available prize by somebody. |
They had blankets with them, and beds |
g were made from the feathers of the sea
hens, Which they caught, Their own,
clothes had to last them all the time they.
.sse7swere there's but they made boots, gloves. |
animals they caught. For the last !
4 seven months they were entirely /
without, tobacco, and this the seamen |
seemed to regard as the worst of all. |
There were no. clocks or watches
z among the crew, but Esmond SAYS he /
sz Laadel slln-dlal on the roof of shanty
(which sallieed Nearly correct reck-
oniI1g OF the days and months was kept
IN the simplest possible manner A cal |
- sendar was marked out on large board |
and affixed where it could be easily seen.
As each evening came round another
day was scored off by a man whose duty |
IS it was to tick it off with piece of chalk. /
Il was melancholy consolation to watch T
SO the weeks as they passed, andsto see how I
long they had been on their island. Sun /
day was the same as any other day, and |
the. routine Of patrolling the beach for
food belonged to the seventh as web as
= toshfe other six days of the week. No
attempt was made tocelebrate Christmas
day, the Fourth of July, or other festi-
vals either rehgiously or by jollification,
- IT such q thing were possible under such
circumstances, Fortunately they hadno
sickness excepting in the case of those.
'r who became frostbiftea. There were a.
few copies of a magazine in the settle
ment which belonged to the Captain, but
beyond this they had no literature save
some books On navigation; and vet, with
Mi their apathys Esu1ond deseribesthem
q On he hole % eerfm afid always ani-sls
s. matea ~ hope, He adds Such a
& ie&lshearted crew under such, cirrlim-
rs as2less 4 have not been among before.
81 He ~ stuck It out very well, and meyer
81 looked on the dark side.n Several events
ia the Shape Of disasters and otherwise E.