A TERRIBLE TALE OF THE SEA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 113, 15 June 1880, Page 2

A TERRIBLE TALE OF THE SEA.

THREE DAYS WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER.

An official inquiry into the loss of the loss of the barque Ulster, of St. John’s New Brunswick, was concluded at Liverpool on April 10th, before the Stipendiar Magistrate, assisted by nautical assessors. The inquiry revealed a terrible story-of hardship and privation. The Ulster sailed from St. John’s on the 28th January last with a cargo of timber for Liverpool, and up to the Bth of February had fair weather and favorable winds. At mid- - night on the Bth, however, the wind backed, and a heavy: gale commenced to blow. At daybreak the storm continued unabated, and the heavy seas shipped from time to time caused the deck to break adrift. Captain Bxans, the master of the vessel, thereupon got his crew to work at throwing the deck load overboard, which was done until dark, the pumps meantime being kept going at every opportunity. The night having come on again, and the gale being unabated, the boat skids were broken by the seas, and two of the boats —the pinnace and the gig—as well as all the loose things about the deck were washed away. On the 10th the weather moderated, but the folk wing day another gale came on, and about 2 p.m. the binnacle and the wheel were carried away by a tremendous sea, which threatened to engulph the ship entirely. At 4 p.m., during a lull in the storm, the crew were able to go below and get some dinner ; but while they were so engaged, the ship was struck by a hurricane frcm the north-west, which caused the main yard to break away, and threw the vessel on her beam ends, the port rail. being under water. At 6 p.m. the cabin door was burst in, and some of the men took to the rigging. At daylight on the 12th _it was discovered that the steward was.miss-, ing, having probably been swept away from the rigging by the waves. Later on the swelling of the timber in the hold caused the hatches to burst open from below, and the vessel became waterlogged, 1 upon which the crew took refuge in the upper lazarette, where they remained helpless for six days, subsisting on preserved provisions, which they obtained by breaking through the bulk-head into the cabin. All that could be found to drink was a jar of fresh water. On the 18th the crew left the lazarette and took to the rigging ; but the raging sea swept away one man, an A.B. belonging to the London, named Lindsay, and the intense cold and exposure caused another man named Anderson, a Norwegian, to die .in the rigging. The cook became delirious from the terrible privations to which he and all the others were subjected, and jumped into the sea in a fit of frenzy. For three days the unhappy men remained clinging to the rigging of the waterlogged ship, having neither food nor water to sustain them, and their sufferings, being increased by the fact that two steamers were sighted, which, in spite of the signals made by. the despairing men, ; passed on without noticing them. On the 22ud February they were seen by the steamer Hipparcus, which took them off in her lifeboat and brought them to London. The above facts having been shown by the evidence, the Board of Trade Court, ■ in giving judgment on the 10th, exonerated the master from all blame, attributing the loss of the ship to the terrific weather which prevailed in the Atlantic at the time. . ■