Year: 1875

From the San rancisco Chronicle.l


On the steamer Mikado, which arrived
in this port on Saturday last, came Capt.


Groves and his wife and two children
one a babe-who have had n most re-
markable escape from the never-satisfied
! jaws of old ocean. All that human beings
could suffer, endure and live fell to their
unfortunate lot. The Captain and his
wife are both comparatively young, and
look sufficiently carewon to have borne
the burdens of many more years than
have yet rolled over their heads. The
/ lady is small, delicately formed, and yet
plucky, or courageous, and full of ami
nation when detailing the thrilling adj
ventures through which she and her hus-
band has passed. On April 29th they
left Antwerp for Callao in the ship Albert
Gallatin. They had prosperous voyage
for three months. But Aug. %, off
Cape Horn, 56 degrees south of 10 de-
grees west, a heavy sea struck the ship
and carried away the rudder at about
! 10 o'clock, p. N. Then for fourteen
days every effort was made to replace it,
but the weather continued severe and
the rough winds and waves tossed the
rudderless ship to and fro like cork.
And all this time, as the heavy seas rolled
over the vessel, every soul on board was
continually drenched, so that not one
of them wore dry garment for two
weeks. At length, Aug. 18th, the over
washed ship was found to be within two
miles of the Idlefonso Islands and drift
ing on to the rocks. Immediately all no
board the unmanageable vessel We're COM
PEELED hastily to abandon her, which
they did in two life-boats at about 2
a. m. The Captain, his wife, two chill
! dren and five seamen took one boat, and
/ the remainder of the crew the other, and
the latter have not been heard from
since. After all were in the small boat,
| the Captains brave little wife rushed ON
to the ship and snatched the chronome-
! ters and charts and brought them away
safely. The life-boat soon filed with
water and was weil-nigh swamped
/ beside the ship. The boat got away with
sixty pounds of bread. But this was
| saturated with salt water when she filed.
They brought away no fresh water, and
for two days were without drop while
driven about by the boisterOus esand
seeking a landing-place. August 17ththey
got on shore on Hermit Island, but the
six days they remained there it thunder
ed and lightninged and showed, and was
SO cold that they were little better off
than on the ocean. The rocky isle was
barren, uninhabited and desolate.
August oath they left this island, hoping
to make Staten Land, some hundreds OF
miles distant but near the Straits of Le-
maire, through which vessels often pass.
{


er, when the sea became too heavy for
them TO proceed and drove them back
into Scourfeld Bay, on Herschell Island.
But the sea was so rough tn ey could not
land, and had to stay in the boat al
night. Everything was wet, and they
had to bail constantly to keep the boat
from going down with them. That night
was very cold, and the canvas over
their heads froze stiff. They could
not lie down nor sleep, and had
to sit in a STOPPING position, which Mrs.
Groves did with her babe on her lap,
while the snow on the awning pressed il
down SO low and hard upon her head
that her attitude was anything but com
Portable. Next day they navigated
around this island and landed on Wellas-
ton Island While on these black, bar
ren and rocky islands they often found
it difficult TO get a fire, and suffered in
tolerably from the cold. Here they
found a little wild celery, which they
mixed with their salt sea-soalled bread
and preserved meats, which they had
served in small quantities The daily
allowance of each one was but couple
of ounces of this coarse fare, which was
warmed altogether, and each one took
spoonful. There were nine souls of
them in all. They remained in this dis
tressing condition until the following
Staten Land, with light wind from the
southwest. At midnight they We're be-
calmed an hour or two, after which the
wind freshened from the northward.
Next day it blew a gale from the north
northwest, and in the evening the temp
est became so fierce they were obliged
to make raft of their oars and lash the
boat to them and let her drag, while they
were kept constantly bailine. They
again lost all the fresh water on board.
the boat filled and destroyed all their
provisions, and Mrs. Groves looked up
to her husband and said, sadly,
=" guess we are gone this
time" That night they drifted back
about fcrty miles from the land they
were approaching. Next day was more
moderate. Some of the men fell asleep
on their oars and lost three of them. But
in the heavy seas, whenever wave came,
they were obliged to pull for life. After
q week of such voyaging, the Captains
wife one day saw ship. They pulled
for her, but were not observed. The
day following, about 3 p. M, they saw
an islanC about twenty-five miles OIL. At
8 p. m, they sighted vessel ard made
for her. She proved to be the ship
Syren, from Boston to Honolulu.
The shipwrecked wanderers had now
been afoat or on frozen islands for
eighteen days, in all of which time they
had never had change of garments.
having lost everything when they aban-
doned the ship. When they We're taken
on board the men were almost blind.
All were nearly starved, and one sailor
was out of his mind. They had to be
raised on board the ship, and not one of
! them could stand or walk, their knees
being almost stiff and their strength
W