The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1890-06-28 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

LONG-LOST SAILOR.  William Mann, a native of Kirby-le-Soken. in Essex, has just returned to England after undergoing many remarkable adventures for upwards of half a century. Mann, who was born in 1816, was of a very restless disposition when a lad, and was consequently placed on board the Falcon, which was engaged in the sperm whale fishery in the Pacific. Leaving Kirby in 1834 he spent two years whaling in the seas round the Mariana Islands; but upon getting short of wood and water the Falcon ran into a narrow inlet in Ascension Island. When the vessel was leaving the outlet she was driven on to a sharp rock and became a wreck. The men all got ashore safely, and by an agreement between the captain and the king of the island the most important of the goods were got ashore. The iron hoops on the oil casks, however, soon excited the cupidity of the natives. The hoops were continually being stolen, until at last the captain remonstrated with the king. A quarrel ensued, and the captain slapped the king's face. On the following day the captain and mate were clubbed to death, and two sailors who went to their rescue ' were overcome and despatched. The cooper shot several of the natives, but he got speared through and through, and was killed. Mann was struck , across the neck and face, and two fingers of his left hand were cut off. He fell, and the natives thought he was dead, but he crawled into the bush, where , he was found by a native girl, who bound up his ' wounds and tended and kept him for several days. The news of the murders afterwards reached Sydney, and a man-of-war was sent to the island to avenge the murders. Twenty-three sailors were , rescued from the island by the man-of-war, but , Mann and three others had unfortunately left the island for an adjacent one when the warship arrived. For two years they wandered about with no clothes but, cocoanut leaves, and with breadfruit and fish for food. One day Mann was passing a native, when a sailor named Rodney told him to look out. At that moment the native struck him across the fa,*, jaw, and neck with a large knife, and when he put up his hand a second native struck him a second blow, completely severing the fingers and leaving the remainder hanging by a shred of flesh. He saw Rodney's head split completely in two, and he then fell down insensible. After regaining consciousness Mann crawled to the hut, where his remaining companions were, and they did their best in binding up Mann's wounds. Shortly after this an American ship was hailed, and the men were taken to Guam, one of the M arianas, a Spanish settlement, where Mann's wounds were treated by an English doctor. For nearly forty years Mann lived on the 'Marianas with the Spanish; two years being spent in digging for hidden treasures which were stolen from the Boman Catholic churches in Brazil by a Spanish pirate. He afterwards became captain of a schooner which had been stolen from the English, and his work was to carry produce between the various islands of the group. One day when landing upon an island for wood his vessel was boarded by nine Spanish prisoners who had escaped from confinement. Eight days afterwards he met with the ship of Captain Halcombe, an old acquaintance, and next day a German man-of-war came to his assistance. Acting upon the advice of the lieutenant who came aboard, M ann ran his schooner into Hong Kong, where it was proved in the supreme court that the vessel had been stolen. The schooner was ordered to be sold by auction, and Mann was given 50 dollars. He was then left maimed and disabled in a strange land, and for eleven years he picked up a precarious living as ship's watchman. He then came under the notice of the Rev. A. Gurney Goldsmith, chaplain to seamen at Hong Kong, who collected enough money to send him home. Some £3O was collected and forwarded to the Rev. S. W. Stagg, vicar of Kirby-le-Soken, and the Rev. D. Greatorex, of St. Paul's Vicarage, London Docks. Mann is now living with his brother at Kirby, and is for the present receiving is. per week from the collected fund; but it is hoped enough money will be collected to keep him from the workhouse during the remaining years of his life.