The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-04-28
Fifteen Months on Desolate Island.

John Esmond, second officer Of the
whaling bark Trinity, lost in the South
Seas, has arrived in Boston, and gives q
thrilling story of his experiences by wreck
and his fifteen months life on desolate
island. The Trinity arrived off Heard s
Island. October 2, 1850, and landed
two white men and two negroes, with
provisions enough for three months, and
left them there to kill sea-elephants and
lay in a stock of oil. The bark then
proceeded round toward the southeast
end of the island, where it was proposed
to 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 Is,
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 a mile from the shore,
having two anchors out, with 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. All got off safely, al
though seven negroes were frostbltten.
From that time until rescue, on January
Ii, 1882, the unfortunates lived on this
uninhabitable island without any COM
municaticn with the outer world. About
midnight on the first night OF their
soiOurn on the island EsmOnd. happen
ing to walk down to the shore with two
negroes, saw the ship give a weather
roll. and. with violent lurch, she got
clear of the beach and foated away,
taking with her six months provisions.
This was the finishing blow to them, who
now had nothing but the resources of
the island and the few provisions they
had saved to depend on. There grew a
kind of wild cabbage on the island in
plenty, and this. together with the
flesh of the sea-elephants and leOpards,
formed their chief sustenance. There
were no quadrupeds on the island itself,
1 but there was fortunately plenty of fresh
water. The party lived in four shanties
which had been previously built by some
whaling crew, made of wood, stones and
sod. The weather was always cold. 1t
was below the freezing point when they
landed, and summer brought no change
of any consequence, being situated in
the antipodes. The months of June,
July and August were the coolest, the
darkest and the dreariest, and at this
period of the year they only had about
three hours daylight in the twenty-four.
though occasionally the moon shone very
brightly. During the whole fifteen
months strong gales blew all the time.
The only occupation of the men besides
sleep each day was patrolling the beach
in search of food. When they had suffi-
Gent forimmediate wants they stored up
for rainy day. They didn't organize
in any way either for recreation Or prayer
service. They had no cards and no
games. Their experience was one va
cant dreariness, relieved occasionally by
sitting round the blubber fire spinning,
:. sailor like" long yarns. With few
exceptions they did not suffer hunger
once they became accustomed to the only
food they could get. This consisted of
the flesh of the sea elephants they caught,
but for a long time many of the crew
could not get used to it. There was no
fuel on the island. They used the fat
oily blubber of the sea-elephant in its
place. When they had sufficient blub-
Der for fuel they extracted the oil from
what they had on hand and stored it in
casks. In 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 valuable prize by somebody.
They had blankets with them, and beds
were made from the feathers of the sea
hens, which they caught. Their own
clothes had to last them all the time they
were there, but they made boots, gloves,
mittens, ETC., out of the skins of the sea
. animals they caught. For the last
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
among the crew, but Esmond says he
made sun-dial on the roof of a shanty
which sufficed. Nearly correct reck-
. oning of the days and months was kept
in the simplest possible manner. A cal
endar 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
it was to tick it off with piece of chalk.
II was melancholy consolation to watch
the weeks rs they passed, and to see now
long thew had been on their island. Sun
day was the same as any other day, and
the routine of patrolling the beach fol
food belonged to the seventh as well as
to the other six days of the week. Nc
attempt was made to celebrate Christmas
. day, the Fourth of July, or other festi-
walls, either religiously or by jollification'
if such thing were possible under such
circumstances. Fortunately they had nc
sickness excepting in the case of those
who became frostbitten. There were a
few copies of magazine in the settle.
ment which belonged to the Captain, but
beyond this they had no literature save
some books on navigation; and yet, with
all their apathy, Esmond describes them
Vas on the whole cheerful and always ami
mated by hope. He adds: ''Such a
loyal-hearted crew under such circum-
stances / have not been among before.
We all stuck it out very well, and never
looked on the dark side" Several events
in the shape of disasters and otherwise
occurred to vary the mOnOtOny of their
existence. In January, 1881, a terrible
misfortune happened to them. Five men