DISCOVERY OF THE WRECK OF A VESSEL CAST AWAY MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Southland Times, Issue 733, 7 October 1867, Page 3

DISCOVERY OF THE WRECK OF A VESSEL CAST AWAY MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS AGO.

The schooner Caroline. Mills recently returned to San Francisco from an expedition undertaken last January, in the hope of recovering a portion of the lading of the barque Libelle, which was wrecked on "Wake's Island, in the North Pacific, ' in March. 1866, and in which Madame Anna Bishop was at the time a passenger. Not meeting with much success in recovering the cargo of the Libelle, Captain Nickols, of the Mills, determined to abandon the wreck. Not having made a fortune by the Libelle, and being loth to return to port empty-handed, the skipper now cast about for something to do, and somewhere to go. His decision and its results are given as follows by the San Francisco " Times" : — "He remembered that an island called Cornwallis Island was laid down on the chart, and he thought he would hunt it up. He did so, finding it with some difficulty, and making the discovery, at the same time, that it was some forty miles from the spot laid down for it on the chart. Finding nothing on Cornwallis Island, he made sail for another of these coral rocks, known as Sybilla, or Graspar Eica Island, situated in longitude 169 degrees 3 mm. East, and latitude 14 degrees 40. minutes North. On landing upon this island, which was formed entirely of coral, and is only abont eight feet above the level of the sea, Captain Nickols was surprised to find the beach strewn over with the wreck of a vessel of considerable size, and a. closer investigation in no degree dim n : shed his astonishment, for it became evident that the wreck had been cast away at least a generation ago. The fragments scattered here and there were of fceak, and the copper rudder bands, and some sheets from the hull were picked up. Judging from the size of the timbers, the pieces of which lying around were all in excellent preservation, Captain Nickols supposes that the vessel was one of between four and five hundred tons. On proceeding further up the beach, a place was found where the shipwrecked crew had evidently camped, and some faded and rotten sailcloth showed that they had made a tent for themselves out of the sails. Here the first clue to the identity of the lost vessel was found, in the shape of a quarterboard bearing the name Canton deeply carved on it. Near to this was the armorial shield which had surmounted the stern, and this has been recognised by an old sailor at Honolulu as being identical with those used by the ships of the old East India Company. It is surmounted by a crown, is oval in form, and the quarterings contain an inner shield, also quartered. The heraldic emblems emblazoned upon it unite the leopards of England, the elephant of the Company, with various other ciphers and devices, which the learned in heraldry may recognise and decipher. It is carved out of Norway pine, and was evidently gilded and gaily painted, but the suns and rains of half-a-century have despoiled it of its garish finery, and left it a cracked, bleached, rotten memento of a generation no life of which exists to-day. In the vicinity of the camping-place where this relic was discovered, were found also several spoons and platters of wood. It has been suggested that these are exactly similar to such as were commonly used by the Lascar sailors in the Company's employ, and it is possible that the Canton was so manned ; but when the frigidity of the climate in which she traded is considered, it may be regarded as unfavorable to this view, it being well known that Lascars, though making excellent seamen in the tropics, become almost ' useless in cold weather. The experience ! of every sea captain who has doubled Cape Horn with a Lascar crew will verify this assertion. Several old sea-chests were strewn around, but they were empty, as were also the compass-boxes of the lost ; vessel. No trace of writing or inscription of any kind could be found by the people of the Mills, though the captain searched narrowly over every part of the beach where the wreck wis lying. In the course of their investigations, the party came upon a very singular scene > The frame of the main hatchway of the Canton had been cast up whole, and through the opening a tree had sprung up and attained its full growth ; and as it was as large as any of the trees in the island, this must be taken as irrefutable proof, even if none other existed, of the many years which have elapsed since the ship was cast away. As to what had become of the crew, no clue could be obtained. The island and its surrounding ! reei'e iuylose tt large lagoon, and Captain

Nichols is of opinion that they escaped across this, and endeavored to reach some of the neighboring islands. Whether they succeeded and were imprisoned or killed by the inhabitants, who are cruel savages, or whether they were drowned at sea, will in all probability remain undisclosed for ever. The record of the Canton, however, goes so far as this. According to Lloyd's register, the Bengal. British ship Canton is reported to have left Sitka, on the northwest coast of our lately acquired Eussian-American possessions, in the year 1816, and was never more heard of. Who was her captain, who were her officers, and what her lading was, if any, there is no means of ascertaining. Par away in England many an aching heart waited patiently for tidings of the missing ship, until the eyes that once beamed bright with hope grew sunken and faded, and the rosy cheeks grew wan, and the raven tresses silvery grey. Far away across the ocean many a wistful gaze must have been directed long, long ago, for the vessel that was never to re-enter a home port. Anxiety and fear, conjecture, doubt and uncertainty, must have emerged at length into that dull hopelessness .which weighs down the loving spirit through a life of painful endurance ; but hope and doubt and anxiety and fear were alike fruitless, for the expected ones were sleeping the sleep which knows no waking, among the fathomless deeps where the heavy waters swell and roll among the coral caves, or lying unburied and unblessed on tho arid soil of the savage haunted isles of the Pacific. One more touch of the old romance of the ocean, one little lifting of the dark curtain of the past, and the veil of mystery falls again, never to be lifted again in this world."