WRECK OF THE STRATHMORE.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 572, 19 April 1876, Page 3

WRECK OF THE STRATHMORE.

(Argus ) Galle, February 24. The Sierra Morena put in here, and landed twelve passengers and eight of the crew, part of the survivors of the Strathmore, of Dundee, a new iron ship of 1872 tons, on her first voyage from London to New Zealand, wrecked in July, 1875, on one of the Crozets Islands in the Southern Ocean. The above, and twenty-four others, were taken off the islands on the 22nd January, by the American whaler, Young Phoenix, in a wretched condition. On the 26th of January, the Phoenix fell in with the Sierra Morena, and transferred the twenty landed to-day. Owing to the scarcity of water the Sierra Morena could not take more. The facts of the wreck and of the rescue are as follows The Strathmore, a new ship, one of the finest ever launched in England, sailed about April last with emigrants for Otago, New Zealand, Eighty-eight souls were on board, and she bad never been heard of until the surviving passengers were landed here. The Strathmore, when out seventy-five days, ran on the rocks at night, on a group known as the Twelve Apostles, in the Orozet Group. About forty-four persons were drowned. The remaining forty-four lived seven months on this barren island, which fortunately had one good spring on its summit. They lived on sea birds and their eggs. . Several vessels came near them during the seven months, but the wrecked people failed to attract their attention. When saved by the American whaler they were in a destitute and emaciated condition, and scarcely had a rag on them, The Sierra Morena, which took half of the saved from the American vessel, arrived here to-day, bound to Kurrachee, with railway material. According to the last accounts, twenty-four more were on the whaler. The second mate of the Strathmore and the captain of the vessel that rescued them came ashore first. They state that forty-nine people were saved. Two died on the island from having been frost bitten in the feet, and their toes rotting off with mortification. The captain and chief officer were drowned. Those saved lived for six months and twenty one days on sea birds and a kind of weed like the top of a carrot, growing on the island. The island is one and a half miles long. Half of it is perfectly bare rock, the other half covered with rank grass. Their fuel for cooking was the feathers of the birds. A few matches were saved, and they kept a lamp burning with oil extracted from the birds. Hardly anything was saved from the wreck. The boats they escaped in were lost the first night, the rocks being perpendicular, and no beach to heave them up on. The following is a list of the saved on board the Sierra Morena :—B. Peters, second mate; J. C. Allen, third mate ; G. Buttenshaw, first steward ; D. Wilson, second steward ; John Pirie, car penter ; Walter Smith, sailmaker ; John Smith, cook ; John Wilson, A.B. ; James Knight, third class passenger ; Sobt. Sinnie, do ; Frederick Benley, first class passenger ; Spencer Joslin, do ; George Crombie, do ; William Rook, third class passenger ; George Ward, do ; Joe Ward, do ; George Skidmore, do ; Thomas Standring, do ; Robert Wilson, do; William Wilson, do. The following is a list of those left on board the whaler Young Phoenix Mrs Wordsworth, first class passenger ; Mr Wordsworth, do ; Mr Walker, do ; J. Leak, A.S. ; J. Fitzmaurice, do ; C. Tookey, do ; T. Blackraore, do ; H. Turner, apprentice ; P. Carmichael, do; B. Preston, do; C. K. Jackson, boatswain ; Hilton Keith, first class passenger ; J. Nicol, engine driver ; Joe Tuck, third steward ; John Evans, A.B. ; John Warren, A.B. ; J. Staworth, A. 8.; H. Erickson, A. 8.; M. Rioldan, A.B. ; W, Venting, A.B. ; J. Wilson, A.B. ; J. Wilson, A.B. ; E. Sharp, A.B. ; J. Frail, A.B. A relief fund and assistance in clothing were at once forthcoming. Most of the seamen have been sent to England by steamer. The following, from the Times of India , is the narrative of George D. Crombie, one of the survivors of the Strathmore, taken on the day of landing of twenty survivors at Galle, Ceylon, twenty-four others having gone on to Mauritius “ We sailed on 17th April, 1875, from London for New Zealand. All went well up to July Ist. The 30th June was foggy, and the captain had said we were near the Crozet Islands, and would pass southward of them. He expected reaching New Zealand at the end of July. At a quarter to 4 a.m. on the Ist July I felt the ship strike. She had bumped on a rock on one side and sailed in between two others, and there got wedged. She swung by her forepart, her stern leaning back, submerged in deep water. I made for the port quarter boat with my cabin companion, Bentley, but could not get it off the davits, as a sea broke over us, and washed us back to the handrail off poop. All from the poop forwards was rapidly getting under water to midships. It was foggy and dark. As I hurried on deck I heard the captain call out to the passengers in the saloon. ‘Goodbye to all, it is all over ; save yourselves by the boats at once.’ I was dressed in my coat, trousers, and boots. To save myself I got from the rail of the poop to the mizen rigging, making no further effort to get at the boat. I remained in the rigging till daybreak. By that time, two and a half hours, the Strathmore had gone under water all except the forecastle head. On daylight coming I got along the mizzen topgallantstay to the mainmast, and from there down to the roof of the deckhouse. Several others soon scrambled to the same place, while others made for the rigging. The second mate and several of us got the gig and dingy boats off the deckhouse. We heard nothing more of the captain and first mate. They had been washed overboard, and no one gave any orders. I believed that about twenty-five persons whom I saw were all the survivors okt of eighty-eight souls. We launched the gig, and nine of us (myself not one) got off in it towards some rocks, which we could see tower in front of us. One sugar loaf rock, seventy feet high, looked to be only 50ft feet from the vessel. ‘/The dingy boat, with the third mate, the carpenter, and another of the crew and a passenger, then got off. The rush to this boat, as to the other, kept me out. Eleven of us remained on the forecastle, and one man was visible to us in the rigging. We scrambled now [from the deckhouse to the forecastle. The second mate, in the gig, had promised to return on finding a landing place. We soon lost sight of both boats. The gig returned late in the afternoon, and instead of taking us off the forecastle took five passengers from the mizen-top, whom we had not up to this time seen. .With four rowers this made up the gig’fif'complement, and we again were left to waitftts return. We had to wait the whole ■night, a night of cold, wet, misery, and 1 terror to us, as we feared the Bhip going

down, as she did some hours afterwards. Some one of us got a bag with a few biscuits out of the forecastle; and that was all we ate, Some time after daybreak qn the 2nd July, the gig came_ back, but the dingy did not return. The gig now took eleven of us off, much over-cramming herself to do so, several of us lying down in the bottom of the boat. The sea had got calmer. We found a landing-place about a mile away, and south of where our ship had struck. The dingy had found it, too, and landed her passengers safely. On getting into the gig we took some things with us out of the forecastle, some blankets and sailors’ clothing. That night, the 2nd of July, the ship disappeared altogether, canted over, and fell backward into the deep water, I suppose. We landed at a gap in the rocks, and found ourselves in a most desolate looking place-rocks upon rocks everywhere, a seabird’s home, very few level places, and grass and some weeds growing about. There were plenty of young albatrosses about which we could at first easily knock down with a stick. They had then no fear of us, nor had any other of these seabirds. To our further surprise we found that the lifeboat had arrived at the island before the gig had on its last trip landed its passengers. Nineteen more of us had got safe there by that means, so that with those our dingy and gig had added, the latter in two trips, we made up forty-nine souls in all. The lifeboat’s number included one lady—Mrs Wordsworth, an Edinburgh lady who had been living some time at Liverpool, a widow going out to New Zealand with her son, also happily saved with her. The chief mate and three saloon passengers were amongst those drowned. These three passengers were a Mrs Walker, I believe, from Birmingham, whose husband and son of two years old were saved ; a Miss Henderson, daughter of Mr Henderson, engineer, Wellington, New Zealand, to whom she was going with her brother, who was saved; and Mr Percy Joslen, of Maidstone, in Kent, who was going out with his brother: the latter is one of the survivors. All the second class passengers, six in number, were lost. Their names, I believe, are Mr and Mrs Keddell, of New Zealand, whither they were returning; Mr and Mrs Nobcll (so pronounced), also returning to New Zealand, to the West Coast; Mr Sannech, as I understood, of London, and Mr Blair, an old gentleman hailing from somewhere unknown to me. These made up altogether, with twenty of the third class and eight of the crew, a total of thirty-nine lost. In the third class there was a family of ten named Goodridge, and Mr Lewis, Mr Silk and sister, Mr Deggen and Mr Ridge, and some others whose names I don’t remember. They were, I suppose, washed off the deck with the captain and the mate, I think also the starboard quarter boat had been filled with passengers and afterwards upset, as we saw it hanging in that condition on our getting away, and it went down with the ship. None escaped in it. The other of the two lifeboats had drifted ashore empty. We saw it on the rocks. That accounts for all the ship’s boats. The nearest island was called Hogg Island, six miles off, but as all our boats got washed away and lost next day, we never visited it nor any of the others until we were rescued, Those islands are uninhabited. The island we were on was one of twelve rocks called the Twelve Apostles, part of twenty - six islands called the Crozets, in lat 26 deg

158 min, long 50 deg E. We learnt that much afterwards from the captain who rescued us. Before the loss of our boats we saved from the wreck floating abot t two barrels of gunpowder, one cask of port wine, two cases of rum, one case of brandy, two cases of gin, one case of preserves, one case of boots, and eight tins of sweets. These tins afterwards made our pots. We also saved a passenger’s box, which supplied us with blankets, knives, and spoons. Some deck planks and other pieces of timber were secured. Matches several of us had, and the wood made fires until all was burnt up, and then we burnt the skins of birds, which did well. The two first nights we had no shelter, but the third night we had rigged up a lean-to against a rock with stones and turf, that held the whole forty-eight for that night. One of us, aMr George Miller, had died of exhaustion and shock to the system the first day. We afterwards rigged up other shelter, and divided ourselves into six messes, each doing its own cooking. Sea birds and their eggs and boiled grass were our sole food. We found a spring of good water, and that was our g*eat good fortune in all our troubles. Our number of fortyeight was reduced to forty-seven on the 18th July by the death of a Mr Stanbury, a young man from Dover, who died of lockjaw, caused by injury to his foot. On the 3rd September we also lost Mr Henderson, who died of dysentery, after a long illness. On the 23rd November we lost one of the quarter-masters, named Husband, whose hand had got hurt and had mortified. Our last loss was on Christmas Day, when Mr Walker’s child died. Our number was thus reduced to forty-four, at which it remained till the arrival of the Young Phoenix to our rescue on the 21st January. We had no doctor among us. The ship had none. During our weary stay we sighted four vessels, but could get no recognition of our signals, some blankets flying all day on the mast of the lifeboat. One vessel came within two miles of the islands, and must have seen us, but she sheered off from us. We had a pocket almanac amongst us. The Young Phoenix, of New Bedford, was cruising round the island for whales. She hoisted the United States ensign, and sent two boats to take us off, and we thus left, and very gladly, as the birds had grown very shy. Our lady passenger survived, and with her sou was the first to leave the island. The Young Phoenix could not take all fortyfour on, and the captain meeting the Sierra Morena on 26th January, transhipped twenty of us, myself amongst the number, to that vessel. She was bound to Kurrachee, on the East Indian Coast, and has put into Gallc, fearing shortness of water and provisions. There are twenty of us waiting at Galle, and are fortunate in getting to this British island, as we are quite destitute. We render our thanks most heartily to Captain Giffard, the Phoenix, and Captain Kennedy, of the Sierra Morena, for their assistance and kindness, which, under Providence, has restored us to civilisation after all the world must have long thought us to be dead. The Young Phoenix left us with the rest of the survivors, twenty-four innumber, bound for Mauritius, on the 28th January.