A FOOLHARDY VOYAGE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1930, 1 May 1880, Page 3

A FOOLHARDY VOYAGE.

A terrible story of privation and danger has been revealed by the arrival at Hew York of two seamen who, in July last, essayed on the venturesome attempt to sail from Boston to Melbourne. The names of the men are Herbert F, Burrill of Falmouth, Cape Cod, and Andrew Coon of Hantuoket. They wore landed at New York by the steamer City of Para, who picked them up at Bahia. It is stated that Burrill, who had been almost from childhood a seaman, had read with lively interest the accounts of voyages in small boats en the Atlantic, and from these he conceived the notion of making a voyage longer than had yet been accomplished by any other person, and in a smaller boat than had yet essayed ocean navigation. Accordingly he built a tiny craft of li tons burden, fore and aft rigged, and changeable at pleasure from schooner to sloop, and on July 9th sot sail from Boston with the intention of reaching Melbourne. Ho named his boat the Golden Gate, and engaged the man Coon to accompany him. He calculated upon reaching Melbourne before the close of the Exhibition in that city, and thus being able to make money by showing his boat. Provisions and water were taken on board the Golden Gate at Boston for a four months’ voyage. The craft was decked over the forecastle, and the bedding was stowed on the provisions and water tanks in the forecastle. The bed was for only one man, as there were only two on board, one of whom would be occupied in the navigation. All appears to have gone well for about two months, for on the fifty eighth day out the Golden Gate reached San Jago in the Cape de Verde Islands, where she was repaired. Fresh provisions were taken on board, and on September 17th the little craft set sail for the African coast, A succession of storms were encountered, however, and the provisions having got wet commenced to ferment, and burst the tins in which they were stored. Most of them were, therefore, thrown overboard. On December Hth it became evident that what was left of the provisions would not last until the African coast was made,and the Golden Gate was then headed for the nearest land, which was St. Helena, but light winds and a strong current carried her to leeward, and Burrill was obliged to shape a course for South America. When 600 miles frcm Brazil, the provisions gave out, and for twenty-five days Burrill and his companion are reported to have subsisted on water and cccca. Their strength failed day by day for a fortnight, and when within about a week’s sail from Bahia they wore in such an exhausted condition as to be unable to stand even for the short time necessary to readjust their nautical instruments and to take observations, and they afterwards sailed by dead reckoning. At length, famishing and barely able to steer their cockle-shell, th two adventurous mariners ran into a small creek about twenty miles north of Bahu, where they dropped anchor. There was a native settlement in the place, which ie named Assa da Torre, and the inhabitants took them ashore and treated them with such kindness that they recovered strength. They were afterwards sent by a coaster to Bahia, and placed on board the City of Para, their boat being also taken on board. Burrill is thirtyfour years old, and Coon twenty-eight.