The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-01-12
If a Ship Thrown ON a
Barren Spot
I'm the South Atlantic Ocean
For 154 Days.
LIVED ON BIRD EGGS.
The Island Was Infested With
Hungry Rats.
Natives Lived on Sea Eagles
Whose Flesh Was Strong.

New York, Jan. 12.-Cast on rat-in-
Tested island, more than $500 miles
south by west of the Cape OF Good
Hope, Captain r. r. Shaw and his
crew of the bark Glenhuntley lived for
154 days, mostly ON penguins' eggs. At
last they were rescued by the British
warship Thrush, and late in November
were landed at Simon's bay, South
Africa
The bark sailed from New York on
March 81 last, with general cargo,
for Freemantle, Australia r. w. Cam
eron & Co, shipping agents of No. %
South William street, were rejoiced to
learn yesterday that the GIenhuntIey's
crew-long since given up for lost-had
been rescued from starvation and were
now on their way to Liverpool, where
the bark was owned.
The voyage from New York was I'M
eventful until the first days in June,
when a fierce storm was encountered.
The craft was so seriously damaged
that on June Captain Shaw and his
men were forced to abandon it at sea-
They took to the 1ifeboats, and several
days later landed on one of the Tristan
d Acunha isles.
The adventures of the shipwrecked
men on the faraway island are best de-
scribed by Captain Shaw in a letter
written by him which reached here yes
terday by way of Capetown. After tell
ing of the abandonment of the bark and
the landing on the island of Tristan
dAcunha, he writes:
1.-THE first ship that approached the
island and was boarded by US was the
American vessel s: D. Carlton, on Sep
TENDER 16, from New York to Hong
Kong. I wanted the captain to take
US to the Cape of Good Hope, but he
could not. Our second mate, however,
went on the Carlton. Three days after
ward we sighted a sail from the high
land at the foot of mountain. That
Afternoon eight men and myself left in
a small boat, and got to her, sailing and
rowing, about 10 p. m. She proved to
be the four-masted bark Strathgrype,
of Greenock, from New York for Mel
bourne. They also could not take us,
but the captain gave US seventy pounds
of bread, fifty pounds of flour, fourteen
pounds of coffee and some tobacco.
That was the first substantial food and
tobacco we got since we reached the
island. AS the population of the place,
with our eleven, had been increased to
eighty-three, the supplies did not last
long.
II never thought that there were
white people so poor as the seventy
two who made Tristan d'Acunha their
home. The natives have houses built
of stone, and they are matched with a
only one story high, and the people
cook, eat and sleep in a. single apart
ment. Along the inside walls of some
of these apartments are hunks like
those on ships.
THE natives make trips in their little
boats to Inaccessible island, twenty
miles distant, in a southwesterly di-
-ection, for tussock to be used in thatch-
9ng. The islands are overrun with rats,
which get scant food, excepting when
the natives try to raise a little grain.
Then they dig up the seed almost as
soon as planted. The people grow very
little Of anything, but once in while
they succeed in raising a few potatoes.
There are a few apple and pear trees,
but the rats, which climb them, eat the
fruit before it can ripen.
1.-THE governor of the island gave me
shelter, and the rest of the crew were
CHARTERED at the houses of the natives,
who divided their stock of eaglets and
penguin flesh, and the eggs of the latter
seafowl with them. Sea eagles are
about the size of a duck, and their flesh
was too strong for me to eat. The ma
tives, however, seem to relish it, and in
time there is a possibility that 1 would
also fall in line with them. The crav-
ing Of hunger is a terrible thing, and
to satisfy it 1 ate penguins' eggs for
breakfast, dinner and supper. They
were cooked in all styles, but the var