SHIP BURNED AT SEA.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1026, 21 January 1882, Page 4

SHIP BURNED AT SEA.

THE CAPTAIN AND ELEVEN MEN SAVED. Captain Brown, of the ship Phasis, which arrived at Lyttelton from Calcutta, reports picking up Captain Schultz, of the Dutch ship Alblasserwaard, and eleven of the crew, under the following circumstances: —The ship Alblasserwaard let's Shields on August 11th for Batavia; with a cargo of coals. She was off Amsterdam Island on November 26th, at 6 a.in., when it was discovered that sulphurous gas was escaping from the other hatch, next at the main hatch, and before night from all parts of the ship. The crew were put to work io get at the fire below, but gas came up so fast that they could not reach the seat of the fire. They started to heave the cargo overboard, and continued to do so until the afternoon of the 28th, when the crew gave out exhausted. The ship’s position was 37 S., 81 E., with the wind strong from the N.W. Finding that the flames below had got uncontrolable possession they took to the boats, the chief officer and ten men in one and eleven in the other. Water and provisions as much as could be safely taken, were put into the boats, and the position taken, distant 200 miles eastward of Amsterdan and St. Paul’s Islands. A heavy sea separated the boats the night the ship was abandoned. Captain Schultz steered for Kerguelen’s land to the S.W., and after seven days of hoping against hope, and of methodical economy bordering on starvation, his boat fell into company with the Phasis. She had then travelled between 600 and 700 miles. It was on December 4th, in the evening when, in the trough of such a sea as rendered it impossible for the boat to be seen from the ship, she ran alongside of the Phasis. Captain David Brown was below at tea when the report reached him that a shipwrecked crew was alongside. It was blowing half a southerly gale, but Captian Brown for whom the rescued boat’s crew will ever cherish the dearest remembrances, sprang on deck, audit took him just fifteen minutes toentertain hisunexpected butwelcome guests. The ship’s position Captain Brown reports to have been 29.30. E What privations the poor fellows endured, almost hopelessly, at sea, to leeward of the only land between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia, confronted by a hard adverse wind and threatening sea, can better be imagined than described. The loss of all in the way of worldly possessions counted for nought in the face of what they felt to be a certain, fearful, languishing, lingering death. The lost ship was built at Rotterdam six years ago, and was the property of IL H. | Von Lindorn. She was built specially for the Batavia trade, and was 1,256 tons register. Captain Schultz is afraid that his chief officer, Mr D. Pauls, and his boat’s crew have not been saved, their only hope of rescue being, like his own, that of a passing ship. Of course it is within the possibilities that a friendly vessel has fallen in with them, and the announcement of such good news will be looked forward to with no degree of anxiety by tie known survivors, and not less so by the public at large.