A STRANGE TALE OF THE SEA.

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1036, 18 May 1883, Page 2

A STRANGE TALE OF THE SEA.

' The American whaling schooner Pilot’s Bride, bound on a whaling and sealing voyage to the Southern Ocean, was - totally lost on Desolation Island on 3rd October, 18S1, as telegraphed by Lloyd’s agent at Cape Town a few days ago ; but the report that 81 nien had been lost in her was erroneous. The vessel lost her rudder in a violent gale on the 2nd October, 1881, and in consequence of her perilous position the crew left her off Desolation Island, and made for the shore, which they safely reached on the sth October, The vessel was discovered by the officers and men, who kept a look-out from the high land of the island, to have disappeared, and later qn a considerable quantity of wreckage from her was washed ashore, with, fortunately, some ship’s stores, consisting of bread and flour. This, supplemented )jy rabbits, with which the island abounded, and wild cabbage, served the men for subsistence until the 23rd November, when the men deft for Three Island Harbour, a rendezvous for whalers, and distant about 150 miles, in order to deposit a letter stating the wreck of the Pilot’s Bride. They arrived at their destination on 6tli December, and left news of the wreck in a hut at that place, and then returned to the place they originally landed at, which they reached in due course. The men remained on the island until the 4th September last, when they were taken off by the schooner Francis Allyn and landed at Capetown,