THE CRUISE OF THE LYTTELTON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 191, 14 August 1877, Page 2

THE CRUISE OF THE LYTTELTON.

We left the wharf afc^b or Thursday'"' morning, Captain Whit well being in charge, under brdera not to return without Sews of the missing boats as long as the coals lasted, and on the understanding that -the -Lady Barkly intended to search the EjisrCbast of the Bay including pmrvdMek Island, Shaped our course at once for* Sandy Eay:---On J nearing Kaiteri a sudden smoke, as of a ' s !?° a , l : i 6 drew >u , a . £a l^he. v he i a'ch, 'bufcseeing no' further sigh we' went" on"' through Astrolabe towards Awaroa, following the coast line and carefully watching each bay, and also to teteatyard. .Whilsif taking: a -hasty • dinner we were startled by'tfie statement of° the inau at the wheel that we had passed close to the dead body of a man floating on the water ; the boat was founded to, and we, dodged about for some time, but could see' nothing more of it, though the thick drops' of sweat on the helmsman's face and his' earnest and circumstantial story left no: doubt as to what his impressions at least had 1 been. after we,9po.ke Westrupp/ who reported that he had' seen a, foofowri boat making down the! bay towards Awaroa. At thi3 place, however, as at Totaranui,' nothing could be- learned, and wj-tept on! close to the coast past the Tatas to Waitapu,where we landedTwith some difficult ia the* dark, and where they had not even heard that there had been 'a' "wreck. .After an: anxious consultation it was ag'reed'to' start' before daybreak, go to the wreck, and then, shape a course for Port Hardy, along the line i which, from the general direction of the! wind which had prevailed, we concluded the ! boats must have been driven, and in this, as it turned out, our conjecture was perfectly correct. At three next morning (Eriday) it ; was blowing and raining hard, and our prospects seemed very gloomy ; later, however, it cleared up, blowing fresh, but fine. The wreck looked dismal enough—the sea breaking clean over the hull, the masts all standing, but most of the sails flapping in shreds ; no signs of cargo about. The first northerly gale will evidently wash, every '■ vestige away. Alter speaking the Uno,| which was anchored close to the wreck, we bore away for Port Hardy, keeping a careful ! lookout on both sides, but except speaking a small craft or two, one reporting that^ she i had passed through, a complete stream of i floating cargo, nothing happened until we were within a few miles of the south head, for which we had until that time kept a perfectly straight course, when we saw the Manawatu lying in a small indentation of the beach about a mile south of the head ; she told us of having taken off twelve of the crew of the captain's boat, and that two were still on the island. It being then jus t dark, and seeing the Lady Barkly making for Greville Harbor, we bore up for the same place, and anchored for the night. After a long consnltation together, it was agreed that we should next morning make a thorough search of the northern half of the island, and the Lady Barkly of the south to the rendezvous at Catherine's Cove on the east side. We were much cheered by the verification of our theory as to the course taken by the boats, though grieving foe the further night of exposure to which we feared the women and children were exposed, and the crew o£ the Barkjy made great fires and fired rockets, and' We fired guns to let anyone within sight or hearing know of our presence, and which we afterwards found had been both seen and heard. At daybreak on Saturday we were off again; and sightiug the Sappho a loug way off in the middle of the bay, crawled along as close to the cliffs as we dared, every one scanning cacli rock and piece of drift wood with the anxious feeling that lives depended on hi 3 quickness of sight. The ears, however, had the best of it, for all at once we heard a faint but unmistakeable "cooey." The steamer was instantly stopped, and a boat lowered, aud we gazed more earnestly than ever, but could see nothing but frightful precipices with the everlasting surf beating at their feet, yet the cries sounded louder \ and 1 ouder above the fizzing of the escaping steam, aud their tone cau never be forgotten i by any of those who then heard for the first i time a man screaming for his life. The boat could not land, but the man, who turned out to be the ship 'a butcher, and who had not tasted food' nor drink since the Sunday before, crawled down a precipice which would have appalled most athletes in good condition, and then shrunk from the few feet of water that separated the boat from the beach. However, one of the boat's crew took him a line, and he was soon on board. He seemed very much dazed, though strong iv bo-Jy, and could tell us nothing about his missing comrade, so, after spendingsome time in a search which we felt to be vain along the couple of miles of coast towards Port Hardy, •we made for Taylor's cutter, which we had appointed to meet us there, and giving hjm plenty of provisions, of which they had I none, left him with his three plucky com- | panions to land and make on foot a search [ which was hopeless from the sea, whilst we j went on after the missing cutter. We searched every bay in Port Hardy, and every nook all round to Rangitoto Roads without hearing or seeing anything, and felt much dispirited, knowing that the cutto must either have just hit the Barkly's boat, or be still at sea, as every other inch of the. coast line had been thoroughly searched; suddenly the Barkly hove in sight, and soon we heard the welcome news that all were safe. There were not many of us, but considering our numbers the cheer we gave did us some credit, especially as the writer was getting pretty hoarse from having been used as the ship's speaking trumpet throughout the cruise. It was then resolved that the Barkly should at once return to Nelson, and the Lyttelton, which still had a day's coal on board should go back to ascertain from Taylor the' result of his search, and if necessary help

jsim to complete it. All but those connected ■_ \?ifo the Lytfeltori: transhipped foth&'Barkly, ancTso the writer's -fcnofrledge lot the craise of the i former, vessel fcncto Too muchccedit cannot be given for the ipirifc which prompted ifc, nor for the skilful Banner ia. which: her .€»ptaih.4»rried ifcodt.-- All N he did. w&s done 'with the best of judgment aM completely' and the owner will hare the keen satisfac- j tion of knowing that he has been the means of saving at least one life from certain death. j [Concluded by the Landsman, of the expedition left on the %ttelton.] ; J , H On the departure of oar friends,' nritwith' standing the good news we had just received, a feeling of sadness came over us :"A feeling that' : - r~. ■ - =-- - =- ■-■■■■ * * was not akin to pain, And resembled sorrow only As the mist resembles the rain" for a fellow creature was probably perishing of hunger within a short distance of us, and our thoughts constantly reverted to him, but pushing oaour, .vogage we anchored in the bay iujth> Mnland; this side of the French Pjjjsa, there we passed the night. The nexib mowiing by -daybreak we had steam up, and started on our search for the one man only .now missing. from the Queen Bee, passing oix onr way the spit where the cutter from the vessel landed, and GreVille Harbor, where we had; gas&ed Friday ni£hfc,-and arriving . about ,9,a.m. r at Bottle Point, between which and Port Hardy we judged, and as the resulit proved correctly, the man must be. A driving rain had been falling all the morning render^ ing; tha.- inhospitable, .coast more forlorn -looking-- thanVevef, A bufc L the weather no* • cleared, giving us -^better; chance of being successful in-our search. We now steamed ,slowJy along, the coaafe, keeping as close in as possible, and giving' the beach and cliffs & . rigorous.: and r aaxiqus . f samination . WheS about 200 yards on the" Port Hardy side ol .^Ppint wheco- the '"captain -and his eleven com■"paniorfs WeTe^picked* up, Captain Whitweli had a boat lowered in charge of the mate 1 , who made several unsuccessful attempts to I*ss* *L.% c sur f was breaking heavily, and there was So sandy, beach', the sea washing close to thf baise of ; the cliffs; ■ ; On the return o£ : ourjbqa;{; we J.deterniin^ to 1 put in to thfe bay at the northward side of Bottle Point, with the intention of reaching the cliffs from -the fear^searohing the bush and looking down the face of the cliffs to the sea. The Sappho, which had been within a short disf tance of us for some time had evidently come to the same decision, as she was steaming into the bay. On getting inside the bay the Sappho sent a boat to us to obtain informal tion as to our contemplated movements. Our bpat was quickly lowered, and the searctk party consisting of the mate and two men landed, and were soon loss sight of in the densescrub with which the hills are covered: The Sappho shortly afterwards landed their boat's crew, consisting of about twenty, and incredible as,it may appear, so thick is the* vegetation' that the whole party were soon entirely lost to view. In about three hours 1 the search ;, parties were seen returning by twos and threes, and our" boat was at onee 1 despatched and our men brought onboard looking; tired, ragged, and ' disconsolate; .Their, report was most discouraging, and iust as^we Ijad determined, with how much regret may be imagined,- to abandon the search, & cry Was heard " They have got him," and to our intense surprise and delight we saw the missing, mtfn ia {he Sappho's boat, which was now being pulled vigorously from the shore to. their "ship, W;hile the 'fHip hip hurrah" .of those Ha: the bbat was taken up by the Tars injhe ship, and re-echoed by us,' *? W 94 aw thepGor fellow, hatless, almost c ofchesless, and wretched looking indeed, but; still alive, taken to the mani-of-war,; where ao doubt his welcome would be as warm as that 4 which he would have received from us. During the time the 1 search iwas. being prosecuted, Taylor and his party in their cutter came alongside us, and were taken in tow by tbe Lytteltonr And now our : 3earch being; ended, "we started homewards, arriving at the Government wharf at about : midnight on Suuday; Though a matter of small import-: ame, it ,may be. ah well here to correct a statement fa the Evening Mail of yesterday to the effect that the butcher, Gutherlest, was brought' to Nelson by the Lady Barkly; as a matter, of fact he remained on board the Lyttelton from the time we rescued, him until we reached Nelson. Anything less dramatic than our return could scarcely be imagined. A drizzly rain; was falling, the: old wharf was sloppy, aud Wretched-looking, and the few individuals present appeared as if fheir enthusiasm had all evaporated with their Saturday's cheering, j The writer went ashore and wearily plodded his way homewards through the Port road mud, cheered by the thought that the expedition •of which he h.ad formed one had been the means '6( saving, certainly one, and probably two, human lives, both of whom had been in'perfy.mbre dire than that of any of the crew or passengers of the ill-fated. Queen Bee.'