The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-07-24
THE STOLEN SHIP.
story Of a Heariless Robbery at
sea BY Portuguese, Sailors.

In the year 1860 l was one Of the crew
Of the British survey brig Advance,
which wa surveying the islands to the
south Of the Sandwich group. Kingman
shoal, Palmyra island and other shoals
and islands had not cen closely sur
veyed. and we were spending the sum-
ner in this work The brig was a craft
bf 200 tons, and being a government YES
vel was under strict discipline.
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 3 o'clock in the aft
ernoon and hung to Us until noon the
next day. During this time we were
running a little east Of north and having
all we could do, and when the gale broke
VIC were at least 200 miles to the north
East of our island. 1t was midafternoon
before we got the brig about, and she
had scarcely been headed back when a
whaleboat came down upon us from the
northwest. and when we got her crew
aboard we heard a very interesting story.
There were eight of them-a first
mate. two h~arpooners and FIVE hands.
All belonged to the British whaling bark
Penrose, of Liverpool. Twenty days
previously she had run into Honolulu
and discharged half a cargo Of oil and
shipped three Portuguese sailors to re-
place hands who had been lost at sea
On leaving Honolulu she had cruised to
the southwark, taking a whale occasion
ally, and on the day the gale broke she
lowered for whales about 200 miles
north Of the group we had been survey
ing. Three boats were down at once as
the bark ran into a school As the breeze
was light only a shipkeeper was left
aboard, and he was a sailor who vas
Just recovering from a hurt.
The three Portuguese were in the cap
tain's boat. which made fast to a big
bull whale within a quarter of a mile of
the bark and was Immediately struck
and disabled, and the line had to be cut.
Meanwhile the other two boats had gone
to the eastward after the school, and
they had no sooner made fast thar their
victim ran off at full speed Owing to
the direction of the wind the shipkeeper
could not work down to the captain. His
boat was a wreck. but was acting as a
float to sustain the crew. In this emer-
gency the three Portuguese offered to
swim to the bark and return with aspare
boat, and they were told to go. 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 boosted of it.
and derided the men hanging to the
steven boat.
It was q heartless, cold blooded thing
to do. The two other boats were FIVE
miles to the eastward, and it was an
hour after the bark made off before the
men cut loose from their dead whales 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, dividing
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 swamped- Had
we been running a course the surviving
boat could not have fetched us, but as
we brought about she got the chance to
do So.
As o az the story had been told our
captain decided to go in search of the
stolen bark. It was a question, how
ever, whether she had outlived the gale.
She must have received the full force Of
it, and being so 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 Portu-
guese would let her drift. In that case
we would have to owe a hundred miles
OF ocean 10 tue WeSLWdf0 OckOlo DS6iH-
ming to look for them. What did they
want Of the craft? What could they do
with her? There was only one reason
able answer. They would run her down
among the southern islands, find some
safe spot Il lay her away and then shave
a good time" This meant eating, drink
ing, smoking and having no work to do.
They would not dare to try a long voy-
age nor to put into any prominent port
/ was Mate Cummings belief that the
Portuguese would head for Christmas
island, a hundred miles to the south of
where we had 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 owe
twenty-five miles from the island. The
stolen craft had evidently been taking
things pretty easy. She was under short
sail when we first espied her, although
the weather was fine and the breeze fair.
The thieves had no fear of pursuit, and
perhaps all were captains except the
shipkeeper and would not obey each
others orders. We had her almost hull
up when the fellows became suspicious,
then they set everything below and
a1of& aud fo onr intanca charrin WE dis