The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-02-07
MARINE

I
One of the most interesting charac
tiers among the surviving men of tn,
lost ship Eclipse is John Cameron, tn
first officer of the vessel. Though h,
has almost touched three score, and ha
been forty years at sea, he i
still hale, and came through the terribl,
ordeal of sixteen days of thirst, hunge,
and struggle with the elements in al
open boat at sea, both mentally anC
physically, better than any other of tn,
thirteen men who survived it. Hi:
equipoise and moral force was undoubt-
edly one of the strong elements that
held together in self restraint and con
tinuity of purpose the little band OF
eastaways, when hardship and thirst
and disappointment had made most OF
them either madmen or the slaves OF
despair.
Mr.. Cameron comes of Scotch anees-
try, as his name indicates, though il
was a number of generations back, for
his parents, grandparents and great
grandparents were all New Englanders,
a number of them having been born
within sight of Bunker Hill monument.
Mr.. Cameron began his seafaring life in
coasters along the New England coast.
But he has been in almost every port
in the world since then. For twenty
years from the beginning of wheat ex-
port from California to Liverpool ne
was engaged in that trade, and has
rounded Cape Horn nearly forty times.
That was the heydey of that service
The ships were magnificent vessels. the
best examples of American shipbuilding.
He says that in the more than score
of times he has rounded the Horn he
has never seen so much as sail lost
there. The ships of the wheat fleet put
on their best suits of sails to make the
tempestuous passage and thus saved
many a sail, where less strong ones
would have been lost.
The present is not Mr.. Cameron's first
shipwreck experience, though it is by
far his worst. 81 was shipwrecked
twice within month";" he said yes
terday when recalling some of his eY-
periences. "BOth shipwreeks were in
the China Sea. We left Iloilo in the
Philippine Islands in the ship Adam NJ
Simpson on December 20, 1882. I was
mate of her. On the twenty-first we
struck a coral reef, new one that had
grown up since the chart was made.
Coral reefs grow up in a few years in
those waters. When we struck the
reef, we stove a big hole in the ship
but as it was not a big reef we got
off without trouble and then found a
place to beach the vessel to save her
from laundering. She was loaded with
sugar for New York. We stayed by for
4 couple of days, but nothing came in
sight and we took to the boats. We
landed the next day at Port Royal
where We were well treated by the
Spanish governor and were taken to
Manila on a Spanish steamship which
vas trading through the islands.
"When we got to Manila the British
hip G. C. Truefant, which had been
Ibandoned at sea leaking and had been
picked up and towed in by a Spanish
company, was ready to be sent
o Hongkong. l was offered the COM
land of her. She had hole about ten
inches wide and several feet long in
er bottom. A canvas patch had been
ut over this aud the underwriters con-
idered her in suitable condition to be
AIKEN to Hongkong. However, before
-e started, l hired diver to put five
lore thicknesses of canvas over the
ole, and copper sheathing over that,
nd we sailed for HOngkOng. We had
eavy seas, and these patches were
I'm OFF. On January ,, just a month
fter the Adam NJ Simpson had struck
lie reef, we had to abandon the True {
mt. She was heeled over so far on f
count of the leak that / feared at
very minute the ballast would shift
nd capsize the vessel. In taking to
lie boats in the heavy seas, one of the L
pats was capsized and one man was
st. The rest of US, about twenty men,
one fine boat, headed for Hongkong. 8
e approached the Chinese coast at this
entical season of the year-Chinese
ew Years. 1t was night when we
preached the land and we saw in
lmerable Chinese junks. We hesitated 7
go among them at night, and so stood
+ until morning. The morning open k
with a heavy fog, but about 10
clock the sun broke through and the
st thing we saw, besides the Chinese
nks, was the rude monument of stones '
at had been piled up to mark the
ot where the first missionaries from q
lrope to India had landed after be q
Q driven out of Intercourse more than
rec hundred years before. There was
French mission there and we were
I'll treated by the priest. After wait
g there a few days with no prospect