Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-08-28
TALES OF PLUCK
and ADVENTURE.


hurricane That Tor weeks had swept
ravenously across the South Sea and
along the Queensland coast. The
waters had seethed and roared and
tossed, and many a good boat was
hurled under them by single blast of
the pitiless wind.
Two of the stoutest ships ahoat were
the freight ship Loch Sloy and Her
Maiesty's warship Pylades. But these
two now lie wrecked on reefs off the
Australian shore. i OF the fight which
the Loch Sloy bravely made and lost
there are three survivors to tell.
Twenty-four lives twere lost with
the Loch Sloy, whose wreck was one
OF the most shocking disaster that
have ever been known in the South
ern seas. The boat herself was shat
tered into bits. The only men aboard
her who did not perish endured such
an ordeal of suffering and starvation
as has rarely been described Women
who had been hurled shrieking from
the masts where they clung suffered
violent deaths in the water.
1t was in January that the Loeb
Sloy sailed from Glasgow in command
of Captain Nichol, with a crew of five
apprentices, twelve able seamen, two
sail makers, cook, a carpenter and a
boy. Mrs. Nichol accompanied her
husband, and the other passengers
were Mrs. Cartridge, Captain and
Mrs. Leicester, John Lamb, Walter
Logan and James kirkpatrick.
Ill-luck pursued the ship from the
start. Storms alternated with appal-
ling seasons of fog and were followed
by leakages and train of mishaps.
When Kangaroo Island was sighted
the ships people set up a shout of
Joy. Had the island been sighted a
few hours sooner the wreck could have
been avoided. The lack of light
house was the chief cause of the dis
aster.
1t was in the middle of the mates
watch on the morning of May 5.
Land hol" shouted the lookout.
The crew were summing themselves
under the lee rail, enjoying cup of
coffee after the hard work of the
storm. The ship was going like a
racehorse. Breakers loomed up ahead
amidst the eddying seas.
Bout ship!" shouted the captain,
and all hands jumped for the halyards.
The helm was thrown hard aport, but
it was too late. The ship bumped
heavily, ripped open, and before a
boat could be cast loose she was
among the breakers and swept clean
by the wicked waters every moment.
She had struck against treacherous
reef.
The knowledge that the ship was
doomed and that all lives were in dan
ger spread over the ship with myster-
ious swiftness. Passengers and crew,
silent and white-faced, struggled to
save themselves by climbing the rig
ging. The women, trembling with the
horror of it all, climbed to the mizzen-
top. The mates, seven of the crew
and the three passengers followed
when they could. Others clambored
to the mainmast and foremast.
In three minutes the mainmast fell
with crash over the weather side.
Those who had been clinging to it
were plunged into the sea. Wave
after wave ate away the good ships
strength till her supports crumbled
and gave way. The foremast toppled
and fell. A few minutes later the
mizzen went, carrying all with it. and
the last hope of saving the ship van
ished. For the drowning men and
women there seemed only death
ahead. The huge waves were batter
ing the ships fragments against the
reef, and land was a mile away.
81 seized life-belt," said William
j. Simpson. an apprentice, and one of
the survivors, "and 1 remember moth
ing else till found myself floating on
some wreckage and the shore not far
away. [ managed to cling to some
rocks, where L found Mitchell, Nc
MILAN and kirkpatrick.
''We picked up some cans of her
ring and got from them the strength
to make our way to cave on the
shore"
From this point the story of the
survivors is pitiful enough. From
the cave they crawled to the summit
of cliff, an unspeakably barren
place, where not a drop of water
could be found. The next day
Mitchell and Simpson, suffering Sc
verely from thirst end hunger, as we'll
as from the pain Of exposure, made
their way along the cliff for several
miles in the hope OF finding either a
human being or some wafer. Failure
added to their bodily torture. They
had not the strength to return to
their companions, and spent the
night under some bushes.
The next day Mitchell and McMil-
Ian, weak, but not yet hopeless, set
out for water. Mcmillan came back
to tell the good news that a spring
had been found and to get q can to fill
with it. The others never heard from
him again nor found the water that he
had discovered. They believed that
weakness overcame him and that he
fell from the cliff.
For three weeks the surviving men
led an existence of increasing torture
The only wonder is that they did not
| die Occasional rain pave than THAR