LOSS OF THE SHIP ERIC THE RED OFF CAPE OTWAY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2345, 22 September 1880, Page 2

LOSS OF THE SHIP ERIC THE RED OFF CAPE OTWAY.

SECOND EDITION

AN EXCITING STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. TWENTY-THREE PERSONS SAVED. FOUR DROWNED. The various Melbourne papers contain lengthy accounts of the disastrous wreck of this vessel. The Eric the Red was a wooden ship, 85 days out from New York, and her large cargo consisted almost entirely of American exhibits intended for the Melbourne Exhibition. The ship, the captain states, was not insured for a dollar. Capt. Allen can only account for his disaster by a haze over the land, which deceived him as to his distance from the Otway light. His statement is to the following effect : He was on deck on the night of September 3, from half-past ten to half-past eleven, and made the Otway light exactly as he expected. He shaped his course, and five minutes before the ship struck he judged his distance from the light to be about ti miles, his bearings showing east by north. He took his bearings on the chart, and came out through the companion way when she struck. He could not understand how anyone had been saved, for in ten minutes scarcely an3 rthing was hanging together, and the sea was rolling over the mizen top ; he never saw anything like it in his life. The scene is thus described by the Captain:—“Just as I was coining through the companion-way, there was a motion which seemed to me as if something had struck the ship, but an instant afterwards I know that I was ashore. I jumped up and saw by the light that the ship had struck, but was still moving ahead, and wlien she struck the second time, the shock and sea carried the man away from the wheel and broke the wheel ropes. The men then called out for the boats, and I said, “The boats are no use boys, get the wheel ropes and lash the tiller hard up.” This was done, but the next wave she took, she carried away her rudder, and the sea made a clean breach right over her stern. Then she commenced to break up, and in twelve minutes’ time there was not a vestige of her to be seen to cling to. The men had got the covers cut away from the port quarter boat, but the sea came in and swamped her. The sea was washing over us and the mizeutopmast came down with a crash, the yards and everything being with it, but fortunately not a living soul was hit by any of the falling timber. As soon as I found out that there was no hope, I said to Nod Sewell, the owner’s son, who was acting as third mate, “ Stick by me, and hang to this mizeumast with which I went overboard when it broke away. He did so. I threw off everything I had on me with the exception of my shirt and drawers, and Sewell and I went off on the mizenmast. The mainmast had broken away previously. Before going overboard, I inquired for Mr Yaughan, and some of the men told me that he had gone overboai’d at the same time that the mizenraast broke away. The mizeumast on which Sewell and I were clinging, then drifted away. When the mainmast broke off the ship broke in two, and the fore part went clean down. The second mate and one of the men were also on the mizenmast with me. We drifted round in every direction, with the sea piling over us for an hour and a half. The scene was indescribable. I called to Ned Sewell to “hang on” several times, but the sea broke his hold, and as he was drifting away I let go with my right arm and tried to grasp him, but the sea carried me away.

and I went down under the sp.n*. My leg got caught in a rope, and came up again on the other sale of the spar, of which I caught hold. I thought Sewell had gone down, but it seems lie got washed away, and succeeded in catching Ids own chest, on to which lie clung, and from that he passed on to a kerosene box, and got clear of the wreckage. I saw, some distance away, twelve or thirteen men on the top of the deckhouse boating about, and ■ I said to the second mate, “That is our salvation, if we can get there.” The second mate said that he could not get to the wreckage, and I said, “Well, we may as well drown in trying to go there as remain here and bo drowned,” and I started off. He would not come. When I let go my drawers slipped down and entangled my legs, and I sank ; but while under water I cleared one of my legs, and on coming up clutched hold of some timber that was close at hand, and managed so release my other leg. There was a piece of clear water between me and the floating deck, and as I started again the sea struck me, and I sank. I thouglit it was all over, but on coming up I got. hold of a square royal yard that was floating about, and after resting a little, I swam from that to the deck house wreckage. There were 18 men on this wreckage. Just as I got there, we espied a steamer approaching in the distance, and they called to her and the signals were heard. There were 23 out of 27 saved. The four men missing were the steward ; Geo. Dahlgreen, the ship’s carpenter ; Geo Silver, an able seaman; and Mr Vaughan one of the passengers. Nearly all those who were saved were more or or loss injured. One man had three Angers torn off, another had three ribs stove in, and the rest were bruised or beaten about. I had my loft foot badly injured, and my whole body is bruised, and black and blue. I lost everything I had, and it was a mere chance that I had not my wife and family on board with me. My papers, instruments, and what money I had on board, were also lost, as I had no time to look them up whoa the ship struck.