Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-07-22
A TALE OF SHIPWREOK.
Terrible Experience Imprisoned In n Cap
sized Bona

sized Bon.
lSt. James Gazette.l
The story Of the poor woman who,
with her three children, was imprisoned
Tor seventeen hours under a capsized
boat, has recalled to one of our corre-
spondents a similar case Of suffering
which he thus describes. The brig
Nerlna, of Dunkerque, sailed from that
place on Saturday, October 81, lS4O,
under the cSnmand Of Captain Pierre
Eyeract, with cargo of oil and
canvas for Marseilles. Her bur-
then was about ia tons. The crew
consisted of seven persons, including the
captain and his nephew, q boy fourteen
years old. At 3 o'clock in the after
noon of Monday, November 10th, they
were forced to heave-to in a gale Of
wind at about ten or twelve leagues
southwest Of the Scilly Isles. At 7
O'Clock of the same evening a heavy
sea struck the vessel and she suddenly
capsiZed, turning bottom upward. The
only man on deck at the time was thrown
into the sea and drowned.
In the fOrecastle were three seamen-
Vincent, Vantaure, and Jean Marie.
The two former succeeded in getting up
close to the keelson, and so kept their
heads above water. Jean Marie was
not so fortunate he must have been in
scme measure entangled, for after con-
salsiyely graspiDg the heel of yantaure
for few seconds he let go his
hold and was drowned. The other
two, finding that the shock Of
the upset had started the bulk
head between the forecastle and the
hold, and that the cargo itself had
fallen down on the deck, eontryed to
draw themselves alongside the keelson
toward the stern of the ship, whence
they thought they heard some voices.
At the time of the accident the cap
tain, the mate, Jean Gallo. and the
boy, Nicolas NiSSen, were in the cabin.
The captain caught the boy in his
arms, under the impression that
their last moments had arrived.
The mate succeeded in wrenching
open the trap hatch in the cabin deck
and clearing out some casks that were
jammed in the lazarette, a sort of small
triangle space between the cabin floor
and the keelson, where stores are gen.
orally slowed away. Having done this,
he scrambled up into the vacant space
and took the boy from the hands of the
captain. In about an hour they were
joined by Vincent and Vantaure from
the forccastle. There were then five
persons closely cooped together.
As they sat they were obliged to
bend their bodies, for want Of height
above them. while the water reached as
high as their waists, from which irk-
some position one at time obtained
some relief by stretching at full length
on the barrels in the hold, squeezing
himself up close to the keelsOn. They
were able to distinguish between
day and night by the light striking
from above into the sea and being re-
hectcd up through the cabin sky
light and then into the lazarettc through
the trap hatch in the cabin floor. The
day and night Of Tuesday, November
18th, and the day following passed
without food, without relief, almost
without hope; but still each encour-
aged the others, endeayoring TO assuage
the pangs of hunger by chewing the
bark stripped from the hoops Of the
casks.
Want Of fresh air threatening them
with death by suffocation, the mate
worked almost necessarily for two days
and one night in endeayoring with his
knife to cut hole through the hull.
Happily the knife broke before he had
succeeded in accomplishing his object,
the result Of which must have proved
fatal, as the confined air alone pre-
served the vessel in sufficiently buoy
ant state. In the dead of the night
Of Wednesday the 18th the vessel
suddenly struck heavily. On the
third blow the stern dropped so much
that all hands were forced to make the
best of their way forward toward the
bows, attempting which poor Vincent
was drowned. After the lapse Of an
hour or two, finding the water ebbing,
Gallo got down into the cabin, and
while seeking for the hatchet which was
usually kept there, was forced to rush
up again for shelter to avoid being
drowned, the sea rising on him rapidly.
Another hour or two Of suffering sue
ceeded, and then they were rejOiced to
see by the dawning Of the day Of
Thursday the 10Th that the vessel
was fast on the rocks, one Of which
protruded up through the skylight.
The captain then went down into the
cabin and found that the quarter Of the
ship was stove in, and looking through
the opening he called out to his COM
panonS, Thank God, We are saved;
| see a man on the beach" Imme-
diately after this the man approached
and put in his hand, which the captain
seized, almost as much to the terror of
the poor man as to the delight OF the
captain. The people Of the neighbor-
hood were soon assembled, the side Of
the ship was cut open, and the four
poor fellows were liberated after
an entombment of three days and three
nights. The spot where the vessel
struck is called POrthellick, in the
Island of st. Mary's, Scilly. She must
have been driven on the rocks soon after
midnight, at about the period of high
water, and was discovered at about 7
o'clock on Thursday morning by a man
accidentally passing along the cliffs.
in another half hour the returning tide
would have sealed their fate. The body
Of Vincent was thrown on the rocks a
short distance from the wreck, and was
inferred in the battle-ground of st.
Mary's.
Not the least remarkable part Of the
story is that in the afternoon Of We'd