The age-herald., 1897-10-10
TEN MONTHS FROM THE WORLD.
The Ca8taway Crew of the Lost Seladon on
 the Lonely Island of Sophia.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
 A remarkable tale of shipwreck aud priva.tion is that told by the crew or the Selladon, the Norwegian bark wreck ed on StradbrolQe Island on August of last year. Out of sixteen men who left Newcastle thirteen have arrived to tell the tale The three who lost their lives were the captain, first mate and the carpenter The captain who had been in ill health previous to leaving Newcastle died on August 24 from the effects of exposure in the open boat.
 Seven days previous to this the mate lost his life through the captizing of the boat of which he had charge, and the carpenter died shortly after arrival at Sophia island, which place the cast aways finally succeeded in reaching, af- ter terrible hardships. This is the story contained in Australian mail advces brought by steamer yesterday, and solves an ocean mystery when anrernit- ting search for nearly a year had failed.
 The vessel, which was under the conn., mand of Capt.. Adal Jeger, sailed from Newcastle, IN. S. w., on July 13, 1S96, with cargo Of coal for Honolulr. On the night of August she struck on a reef off Stradbroke Island. From that date until September the crew under went almost incredible haTdshtps, their sufferings benminlating on the latter date, when their boat-the survivor of the two in which they left tl1e wreck-was cast ashore on the sandy beach of Sophia Island. They spent ten months on The isl I'd befarn being rescu-d by passing steamer. They were taken to Suva, and after a few days stay at the FiU capital, were picked up by the bark Ellen, Cap tain Anderson, and taken on to Sydney, arriving there om the morning of Au- gust 28.
 The second mate, who, after the suc- cesslive deaths of lthe captain and first officer, was the chief in command, tells the story of the disaster. They were wrecked, he said, on a reef off Strad broke Island, somewhere in the north west of the Fiji group. A glance at the map showed that this was albout east longitude 175 deerees latitude 12 degrees south. He and the capItafn were in one boat and the first mate was in charge of another. The captadn's boat had a chant and compass, and as this was the better sailing craft of ilre two, it was decided that the captains boat should tow the other. Their stock of provisions on leaving the wreck consisted of some ttrls of salmonS and sardines, e small bag of biscuits, two or three tans Of beef, arid two small kegs of water By prac-
 
 ing one a,rdine sar,ls fer a. meal this meagre supply was made to hast twenty one days, tn the meantime the captain had died of exposure, the mates 'boat had been 1cst and the mate diimself drowned. The men had beeni reduced to the last stages of exhaustion. During the whole time they had sighted nothing but sea and sky.
 Or Auerri. 31, with no provisions re- maining and no prospect of rescue, the ..ttJ J.on ,.la +-llx- ever, they had not exhausted their water supply and. with few teaspoon'fuls a day, they managed to Subsisat six days longer. On September they sighted land. It proved to be Sophia Island, some hundred miles to the north of Fiji, and here they landed or, rsi,her, were cast ashore, too weak to starid. They were kindly treated by the Rotunia na- Itfves, who, to the total number of ten, proved to be the sole infeshtants of the island. Through the kindness of their rescuers they recovered some of their usual strength, and rema ined on this solitary spot-its tctal odrcunlf fercnce is not more than few furlong,s-for a lit- tie over ten months. They amused them selves carving watch chains boxes and various articles out of coccanut and other woods. Their food consisted of cocoanuts, turtlets and sea birds, with the occasional luxury of poultry and a few small pigs. On July 17 their roman- tic if uncomfortable, existence on the island came to am end through the pass ing of the steamer Clyde. This vessel noticed the signals held out by the crew and conveyed them to Suva. From there they were taken off by the bark EElen. arriving i'm Sydney as above stated.
 According to the chart the wrecked sailors must have made voyage of near 2,000 mifes in the ships boat before thIsy reached Sophia 0s'land. After leaving Saadbrolpe Is1and they eteered north. ward for some distance as Maiden Island and Chrislunns Ystem0 Me oom-