The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-04-10
THE STORY OF A WRECK.
Imprisoned for Fourteen Months in
Solitude on a Barren Rock.
The Narrative of the Sufferings of the Crew
of the Bark Pilots Bride on the
Island of Desolation.

Bride, of New London, ar lived home this
week, after an experience that falls to but
few men who go down to the sea in ships.
He left New London, Conn, April 81, 1880,
on whaling voyage to the Island of Desola-
! ton, situated in south latitude 500 and longi-
tude 100 east, or about midway between Cape
Town, the southern African port, and Aus
tralia. He reached the whaling grounds with
out mishap and met with so much success
that he was obliged to put in at Cape Town
to transfer his cargo. After that he returned
to the neighborhood of the island again.
The rest of the story is better told in the
language of Captain Fuller, as he related it
to the correspondent;
GAIL went WE'LL" he said "until October 3,
1881, when violent snow storm and gale of
wind lasting three days struck us, handling
us rather roughly. We should have got out
of it all right, however, if on the night of the
4th, in the midst of the storm, while trying
to make harbor on the island, we had not
struck on a reef and lost control of the rud-
der We got out our anchors, and as the
storm seemed to be rapidly abating remained
on board, hoping to be able to kedge her out
after time. During the night it cleared off
and as soon as the day broke we discovered
our position to be in the midst of the break
| eTS SOlue SIX UllleS lTOlu Gue Dldlnldnu. Inc
vessel was humping and dashing bows under,
and / soon came to the conclusion that it
| would not be safe to remain in her over
| night, so l ordered out three boats. We
threw in few things, and the entire crew
| pulled to the shore and landed in safety. OF
course knew the geography of the coast of
the island to some extent from my long
| familiarity with the neighborhood. 1t is
| customary for whalers in that vicinity to put
stores ashore in some of the harbors, in order
to make room for their cargo, until such
| time as they need to use them again. This
| harbor on the shore of which we found our
selves, was what is laid down in the chart as
| Potts Harbor. We arrived there about 6
| o'clock, and almost the first things we came
across were some stores of the bark Trinity
| which was wrecked there.
There was a lot of old canvas and some
| provisions and we Immediately began to
build tents for shelter 1t was very neces-
sary that we should have them, for it came
on to snow and rain almost Immediately, and
| continued to do so for two days, during
which time we could not see but few yards
beyond our door. When it finally did clear
| off, and we turned our gaze seward, our
worst fears were realized. There was no trace
of the vessel to be seen. [ Immediately sent
a detachment of our men along shore to see
| if they could find any traces of her. and they
soon returned with the information that
| pieces of the wreck were scattered all along
| the DeaCn. a Darfel or SO Oh uOuf was every
| thing in the shape of provisions that we
could find. There WERE however, some twelve
or fifteen hundred pounds of bread which
| the Trinity crew had left, and this, together
with what we were able to catch and kill,
was sufficient to keep us in food for some
time. The island is some three hundred
| miles in circumference ana rises inland to
lofty mountains which reach the region of
eternal snow, but there is not tree on it, A
| har dy growth OF grass foot high is the only
ign of vegetation, and in this an unlimited
number of rabbits live, from which we got
many good meal. The main discomfort
| came by reason of our limited stock of cook
| ing utensils We had only one small frying
pan, and as we did not have any other means
| of cooking anything this invaluable object
was kept in use literally from morning to
night in supplying all hands with food.
3LUBBER AS FUEL.
We could not roast everything very we'll
over the fire, for the reason of the peculiar
way in which we were obliged to build our
fire. We had not enough wood to last to keep
up a fire, and we used the blubber of sea ele-
plants as fuel. These creatures were killed
in abundance, as we caught them crawling on
the beach. We built fire OF wood and
placed this blubber above on cross-sticks.
The heat caused the oil to drop down contin-
ually, thus keeping up the blaze. 1t was
nice contrivance for fire, but it impaired an
exceedingly unpleasant smoky and oily flavor
to the food and we were obliged to be very
careful We also found growing about
species of wild cabbage, which we cooked and
ate frequently. From October 3 until the mid
die of November we remained at this place,
living in this way and doing not much else,
and then | made up my mind that it was
high time to be taking some steps which
might lead to our rescue. About $50 miles,
following the line of tue coast, though only
forty by land from Potts Harbor, is Three
Island Harbor. 1t is place which is known
among whalers in that vicinity as the Rem
devious" 1t is on one of the three islands
which give the place its name There was
an old house built there and in the flourish
ing days of the whaling business used to be
often visited by vessels leaving stores and
taking them away. | determined to go to
| this place, knowing that if left word there
of my position there would be good chance
of somebody finding it in the course of few
| months
Accordingly took six men with me in
one of our own boats, and we proceeded to
pull this distance of $50 miles along the coast
1t was toilsome and unpleasant Journey
The variable weather often warned us to
land and often landed us unceremoniousy
without much warning. 1t took us some
fourteen days to make the trip When we
| got there we wrote down two accounts OF our
situation and where we were to be found
| and placed them in bottles, one OF which we
| placed in the house and the other we fasten-
ed to the pole outside After doing this we
rowed across to the mainland, drew all the
boats up on the shore and proce eded to walk
to Potts Harbor across forty miles of coun-
| try After this exploit we resumed the mo-
notony of our uninteresting life, which con-
tinued without anything worthy of mention
until March 6, 1882. Our stock of provisions
at that time had run so low that | concluded
not to remain there longer Fortunately
we had deposited in Norton's Harbor, a place
some forty miles further down the coast, a
quantity of stores in order to make 70 ON for
! our cargo some months before, and to this