WRECK OF THE GEORGE TOWN PACKET.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 209, 9 February 1875, Page 3

WRECK OF THE GEORGE TOWN PACKET.

(From the Cornwall Chronicle, January 13.) Mr Charles Mullins and James M'Clutchy, of the cutter George Town Packet, arrived here by the steamer Pioneer on the 9th inst., after having been shipwrecked between the Pieman River and Macquarie Harbor. In reaching Circular Head they had to encounter much hardship. Captain Phillips gave Mr Mullins and his mate a passage to town, and Mr Mullins left by the Pioneer again yesterday. He deposited the following particulars of the loss of the cutter, and of the sufferings of himself and mate, with Mr Mayson, at Circular Head : "I, Charles Mullins, of Launceston, mariner, left Launceston the 3rd December last, with a man named James M'Clutchy, in a small cutter-rigged vessel named the George Town Packet, about 152 tons burthen, for the purpose of procuring mutton birds and eggs. We visited the Hunter Islands and the Stacks, and. all went well until the 19th December, when with the wind blowing hard from the north-west, we were compelled to lay-to off the Black Pyramid. The wind veering to the west drove our vessel towards the Pieman River, and on the evening of the 20th December, finding all hope of saving the cutter gone, I determined to run her ashore in order to save our lives. The vessel at the time was leaking badly, had lost all her bulwarks and stancheons, and would have certainly soon foundered, as her deck had started. I headed for a sandy spot, and after passing through about a mile of broken water, during which time we had great difficulty in holding on to the vessel, she struck, and in a few minutes broke up into fragments. T had previously placed in a painted canvas bag some blankets, a few pounds of flour, and some matches, and tossed the package overboard. The bundle reached the shore safely and uninjured, and the dry blankets and matches, &c, were, I believe, (under Providence) the means of preserving our lives. The sails of the cutter came ashore, and with them we made a rude tent, and when we had sufficiently rested ourselves (for previous to the wreck we had been two days without fire and exposed to much hardship), we started from the scene Of the wreck (some fifteen miles south of the Pieman River) in the direction of Macquarie Harbor, hoping to see some vessel at that place. After walking for a day, however, we got disheartened, and retraced our steps, and on the 26th of December we setoff in the direction of Woolnorth. We crossed the Pieman and Arthur rivers by means of rafts, using some of our blankets to fasten the pieces of wood together,' and on the 31st December we reached Mount Cameron in a starving condition. In a hut at that place (the keeper being absent) we remained for two nights and a day, making use of a little flour and tea and sugar. On the 2nd January we left Mount Cameron with the intention of making Woolnorth, but in this we failed, losing ourselves, and finally reaching the Montagu at 9 o'clock p.m., where at the house of Mr Edward Evans we were most kindly treated, and here we remained until the morning of the 6th January, when we left for Stanley, which place we arrived at on the same afternoon. It was impossible to save anything from the wreck owing to I the heavy surf beating upon the shore, and we had great difficulty in avoiding the drawback of the water, and so reaching a place of safety. "Dated this 7th day of January, 1875. (Signed) " Charles Mullins." ; Mr Mullins expresses himself very grateful for the kind attention paid him by the people of Stanley and on board the Pioneer.