Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-11-19
Wrecked on a TrOpic Isle.
How THE REISDEER's CREW ESCAPED.

The ship Reindeer, an American vessel Of
I, 900 tons, sailed from Philadelphia on Au-
gust |, 1888, bound for Japan with cargo
OF oil She was commanded by Captain
Morrison. There were tn ee mates and a
steward in the cabin and twenty men before
the mast She had fair winds around the
Horn and entering the South Pacific laid her
course for Japan The night of January 2.
1884, was a dark and stormy one, and the
ship being out of her course, struck on a
reef near one of the Marshall Islands
Taking to their boats, the officers and crew
escaped to the land The island upon which
they landed was called Eial, and lies in lati-
tude deg. 30 min. north, longitude l73 deg
30 min. west When the morning broke the
shp-w rocked men found themselves on an
i.land covered with palms and other luxuri-
ant vegetation Of the tropics party Of ma
tivts whose skin was of the color of new sad
die and whose only clothing was piece of
mating tied around the waist, came out of
the palm groves and down the white coral
beach to welcome the sailors. stalwart
native OF middle age and commanding
presence was the leader. He was the king of
that and all the adjacent islands and called
himself 'Lijah Balock This name he had
evidently derived from the American traders
whose vessels, he said, came at rare inter
walls to his island kingdom.
WELL TREATED BY THE NATIVES.
King 'Liiah treated the shipwrecked men
of the Reindeer with great courtesy, even
giving up his own palace for their acommo.
dation. The royal abode was 20x30 feet, and
posse. sed many comforts that were wanting
in the humber huts of King 'Ljah's subjects.
Every day fresh yams and cocoa nuts were
brought to the palace by the kings orders for
the use of the Americans. On the island of
Eja lived fifty natives, and on the thirteen
small islands surrounding it 200 more From
all the surrounding islands the natives came
in their canoes to visit the guests of the
king
For over a month the shpwrecked sailors
waited for ship to visit the islands, but no
ship came. King 'Lljah told them of an
island far to the Northwest called Ulan,
where ships stopped frequently. 1t was, he
thought about $50 miles away. Finally the
second mate, Druhsn, started with four men
in the long boat of the Reindeer, which had
been saved from the wreck, to find the island
of Ulan. The diet of fruit on which the sail
ors had subsist d since the wreck, had de
creased their strength and the men were in a
bad sanitary condition. Before the second
mate left the island of Ejsl the cook, Frank
with him in the boat supply of water and
fruit and sailed away.
Day after day the sailors toiled at the oars
for only an occasional wind blew over the
tropic sea to propel the boat or temper the
heat OF the burning sun. Day after day the
men strained their ewes to see some palm
clothed island rise from the sea or to catch
sight of a sail. The 'shipwrecked sailors
watching for a sail--no sail from day to day
felt their strength gradually failing One
of the men. Peter Dawson, died of exhaus-
ton.
RESCUED Ar LAST.
| After being in the boat tor eleven days,
and having gone 900 miles in search of the
| Island OF Ulan. a vessel was sighted. She
proved TO be the bark Catalina of London,
/ Captain Williams, from New Castle, New
| South Wales, bound TOR Segiu, Cochin China.
! The wanderers of the sea, with tl.eir boat,
/ were taken on board, and well cared for until
their arrival at Segin. There the French
consul was discharging the duties of Ameri-
can consul the United States having no
/ representative in that port. The French
consul was afraid to send the men to Hong
| Kong. whittier they wished to 90 to get a
| ship 10 this country
! Mr. Trunlett the British Consul, however,
/ believing that blood is thicker than water.
took the men in charge and forwarded them
/ to Hong Kong with a letter TO Colonel M0sby
! Mosby. the mates both declare, refused to
assist them They went then on board OF
the American man-ot-war Essex, which was
/ in the harbor, and laid their case before
! Captain Mccormick. He communicated
| with Admiral Davis, commanding the AsiatiC
squadron, who ordered the Essex to go i'm
mediately to the Marshall Islands and rescue
the remainder of the Renders crew.
! The Essex took the two mates and the
three men along and arrived at the island
of Elal three months and ten days after the
wreck. Ii was found that Captain Morrison
and ten men had left the island one month
before for Jeiuit in schooner, which they
! had built. The rest of the men were taken
on board, and the Essex went to Yokohama.
| There the second and third mates secured
berths on the Psctolus and the sailors ship
! ped on other vessels,