WRECK OF THE AMERICAN SHIP ASIA.

Southland Times, Issue 917, 16 March 1868, Page 3

WRECK OF THE AMERICAN SHIP ASIA.

FEABFUIi SUFFERINGS OF THE CBEW. ' The "Valparaiso and West Coast Mail " gives the following account of the loss of the American ship Asia, the sufferings of the crew, and their rescue by the British ship Professor Airy : — " We regret to have to relate a circumstance that, if not immediately denied and disproved, evinces barbarity of the blackest kind on the part of a shipmaster lately arrived at this port towards a shipwrecked crew, cast away on that dreariest and most inhospitable of all solitudes — Cape Horn. In our 'Maritime Notes ' we have related the arrival of the. Maria Miles, Captain Brandt, and the statement he made concerning the lost ship, together with the arrival of the wrecked crew a day or two afterwards in the Epsilon, and their rebutting evidence. Since then we have been favored with the following report by the captain and part owner of the wrecked vessel:— The American ship Asia, 1015 tons, William Wilcox and others, of New Bedford, Connecticut, owners, sailed from Newcastle, England, with a carge of 1340 tons of steam coal for San Francisco, and went on shore about midnight on the 21st August, on Barnevelt Island, to the eastward of Cape Horn, during a heavy snowstorm and gale from the S.W. The ship at the time of the accident was under close-reefed topsails, reefed foresail, and foretopmast staysail. When she struck the surf was running so high that it was found impossible to lower the boats, and a spar was run . from the bow to the rocks, by means of which the crew were enabled to reach the shore, the ship sinking in eight fathoms within ten minutes after the captain (who was the last man on board) left. The only food they could get ashore was a small quantity of biscuit and a few tins of preserved meats, not amounting to half a biscuit a day during the time they were on the island. They numbered nineteen, all told and as may be imagined, suffered fearfully from cold, hunger, and exposure in that bleak latitude. They did not even have sufficient canvas to rig a shelter for all, and so they had to stand outside, watch and watch, being fifteen days without fire, only possessing as fuel a few pieces of the wreck. On August 30th, the captain says : — ' Saw a barque bound west. Made fires and set signals ; she saw us and came within three miles of land, then squared her yards and went off on her course. The wind was N.N.E., with fine weather. She was a long low barque, painted black ; we know she saw us by her steering.' How different is the next statement ? * September 21. — The British ship, Professor Airy, Captain Groves, came in sight and took us on board, which operation was accomplished within an hour, though that officer, with a degree of humanity that highly became him, expressed his readiness to wait a week, if need be, to remove us.' At that time they were reduced to the last extremity of wretchedness, and fatal consequeuces must have ensued but for this timely succor. The captain and crew of the lost vessel express themselves in as warm terms of the humanity and kindness they experienced on board the Professor Airy and the Epsilon, as they indignantly denounce the barbarity of" the Dutch barque. Comment is useless ; if the captain of the Maria Mileß does not clear himßelf from the reflection cast on his character, we must assume his silence to be an admission of his guilt, in which case we declare him to be utterly unworthy of the position he holds, and of the countenance of all honorable men, and the name of Brandt deserves to become the synonym for barbarity, as that of Groves for humanity and benevolence."