A SINGULAR TRAGEDY AT SEA.

Grey River Argus, Volume VII, Issue 478, 6 February 1869, Page 2

A SINGULAR TRAGEDY AT SEA.

(From the fatimii Mar, Dec, 10.) About the beginning of February last, the Peruvian barqtie Cyaltil left Callao for a port distant only two day's sail, having on board fifty Chinese (who had been engaged for a plantation in that neighborhood), and rice and other supplies for the plantation. The owner <>f the barque, with his Chinese servant, were also passengers, and there was also 20,000 dollars m specie on board. The next day after leaving Callao the Chinese rose upon the crew, and gained possession of the ship, They killed the man at the wheel and the second mate at once, and drove the crew b^elow, The captain and mate attempted to escape by jumping overboard from the cabin windows, having first thrown over some chairs, or other floating articles, but they were soon despatched in "the. water, the wretches lowering a boat for that purpose. The owner, with his revolver, making his stand in the cabin to sell his life as dearly as possible, kept them at bay, and finally was promised his life on condition of giving up his weapon. The crew, nine in number, were brought into the waist of the ship and lashed to a hawser, to which a kedge anchor was bent, and all were tumbled overboard, to perish boneath the water. Having accomplished their cruel design, and freed themselves of officers and crew, they headed the ship out \ipon the broad Pacific Ocean, with the purpose of reaching China. With no knowledge of navigation, or the variation of the compass, and only the idea .that they must stretch out westward to reach China, they brought up, afyer seventythree days, among the Kurile Islands, passed through into the^Ochotsk Sea, and got into the ice. They lay in the ice six •days, and filled up their water-casks, having suffered greatly upon the passage from shortness of water. They still kept to the northward, evidently having no distinct knowledge of where they were, and finally came to an anchor off the "Sandspit," in North-east Gulf, on the 23rd April. They here put the owner and his servant, who had been confined all the time to the cabin, ashore, and afterwards got under way and stood to the westward. This is the last news we have of the ship, but the opinion of the whalemen is that she could not get far away, as her sails were all blown to pieces, provisions short, and that they have not sufficient nautical knowledge to get her out of the sea. Probably they have run her ashore, and dispersed themselves among the Indians of the Kamt , schatka coast. For several weeks the owner and his servant managed to escape starvation, and the rigor of the climate, by the friendliness of the Indians, and by their means, finally, to get on board the Sea Breeze, Captain Hamilton, when she came into the gulf.. The servant is on board the Hercules, Captain Howland. _