Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1890-12-25
How Three Portuguese Sailors
Boarded and Ran Away With
q Whaling Bark.
After a Long Chase and Terrible
Experience They We're Fin
ally Caught.
A British Survey Brig Loses Num-
Der of Its Men in the
Fight.

In the year 1860, / was one of the crew
| of the British survey brig Advance, which
was surveying the islands to the south of
the sandwich group. kingman shoal
Palmyra island and other shoals and is
| lands had not been closely surveyed, and
we were spending the summer in this
+, work. The brig was craft Of 20U tons,
| being a government vessel, was under
strict discipline. She was armed With
| two cannon, and carried supply of small
\ cannon, and those days the inhabitants of
| some of the Soath Pacific islands were a
bad natured lot, and nothing but the sight
of a strong force would prevent them from
making troublesome visits toa vessel an
| chored close in shore.
| About the middle of September we were
at Tanning island, when a heavy gale
came up from the west, and we had to run
| for the open sea to the east, The gale
struck us about o'clock III the afternoon,
and hung to us until noon the next day.
| Duing this time we were rulning little
east of north, and having all we could do,
and when the gale broke we were at least
| 200 miles to the northeast of our island
| 1t was mid-afternoon before we gyt the
| brig about, and she had scarcely been head
| ed back when whalebOat came down up
on us from the northwest, and after half
! hour of hard work we got her crew
aboard. Then we heard a very interesting
story.
THERE WERE EIGHT OF THEM,
first mate, two harpooners and FIVE
hands All belonged to the British
whaling bark Penrose, of Liverpool.
Twenty days previously she had run into
| Honolulu and discharged half cargo of
oil and slipped three Portusu ese sailors
to replace hands who had been lost al sea.
On leaving Honolulu she had cruised to
the southwark, taxing whale occasional
| ly, and on the day the gale broke she
| lowered four whales about 200 miles north
of the group we had been surveying.
Three boats were down at once ae Jle
bark ran into school. As the breeze WAS
light only skipper was left aboard, and
he was sailor who had just recovered
| fl ON a hurt.
The three Portuguese were in the cap
| tain's boat, which mace fast to a big bull
| whale within quarter of a mile of the
bark. and was immediately struck and dis
abled. and the line had TO be cut. Mean
while the other two boats had gone to the
| eastward after the school, ard they had
no sooner made fast than their victim
gan on at full speed. owing TO the direc-
ton of the wind the skipper could not
work down 70 the captain. His boat was
a wreck. but acting as q boat y sustain
I the crew. IN THIS emergency the three
Portuguese offered to swim to the bark
and return with a spare boat and they
we're told to 60 They reached the craft
in safety, but had no sooner got aboard
than the yards were trimmed, her head
was brought to the south, and she sailed
within 300 feet of the captain as she made
off The dark-skinned rascals made no
bones of the fact that they were running
away with the ship. Indeed, they boast
ed of it, and derided and insuted the
men hanging to the steven boat. 1t was u
HEARTLEss, CoID-BLooDED THING
to do. The two other boats were five
miles to the eastward and ii was an hour
after the bark made off before the men cut
loose from their dead whale to fathom the
mystery. They found the wreck of the
captains boat to discover that only one
single man remained with it, the others
having been pulled down by the sharks.
BY the time they had heard his story the
| bark was more than hull down, and Just
then the gale broke. The boats were laid
| head-on to the sea- and drifted slowly to
the east, aividing their men, so as to give
each an equal show to live out the gale.
During the night the second mates boat
was lost sight of and, as it was never
heard of again, it must have been swamp
| ed. Had we been running a course the
surviving boat could not have fetched us,
but It's we brought about to return to the
island she got the chance to do so.
As soon as the story had been told our
captain decided to go in search of the
stolen bark. 1t was a question, however,
whether she had outlived the gale. She
must have received the full force of it,
and being 80 short-handed she was liable
to, disaster. The main question was
whether she would scud or drift We
had adopted the former course, as the
brig had a habit of flooding her decks
when lying head on. The mate OF the
stolen bark, whose name was Cummings.
felt certain that the Portuguese would let
her drift. In that case we would have to
cover hundred miles of ocean to the
west before beginning to look for them.
What did they want of the craft? What
could key do with her? There was only
one reasonable answer. They would run
her down among the Southern islands,
find some safe spot to lay her away, AMI
then have a good time" This meant
eating, drinking, smoking. and having
no work to do They would not dare to
try long voyage, nor to put into any
prominent port. As they would need the
services of the ships keeper, it was not
likely that they would do him any harm.
II was mate Cummings belief that the
Portuguese would head for Christmas Is
land, hundred miles to the south of
where we mad been surveying. and the
briggs course was accordingly laid On
the afternoon of the third day after pick
ing up the boat we sighted the bark dead
ahead. We were then not twenty-five
miles from the island. The stolen craft
had evidently been taking things pretty
easy. She was under short sail when we
first esp;ed her, although the weather was
fine and the breeze fair. The thieves had
no feai of pursuit and perhaps all
were captains except shpkeeper
and would not obey each others orders.
We had her almost hull up when the fell
/. slow became suspicious.