BURNED AT SEA. Fate of the Packet Three Princes AN OLD-TIME OCEAN HORROR. How a Woman's Life was Needlessly Sacrificed by some Sailors.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 187, 15 January 1887, Page 7

BURNED AT SEA. Fate of the Packet Three Princes AN OLD-TIME OCEAN HORROR. How a Woman's Life was Needlessly Sacrificed by some Sailors.

•' I was only 13 years of age when 1 left Cape Town to return to England with my uncle," said Robert Johnson, in telling the ptory of the ill-fated packet, the Three Princes. '* Thia was thirty-five years ago, but all the details are very fresh in my mind. " The packet had a crew of twenty five or thirty men, and left the Cape with over 100 passengers and a large freight. His uncle was an army officer named Running, a Captain, who was returning home on leave of absence to recruit his health. The voyage was without event until the packet had made a distance of about 600 miles. When off Cape Frio she encountered very heavy weathei for two days, losing her foremast and bowsprit and springing a leak. The injuries were in process of repiir, when, at dead night, with the ship rolling heavily in the swell left by the gale, the cry of fire \v<*B heard A general alarm had scarcely been sounded when it waa realised that the ship was doomed. The flames had caught in the fore hold, and were fei by t<uch inflammable materials that they soon burst through the deck. As a matter of fact, after the first quarter of an hour, the ship's oifioers were unable to ioforce the discipline. The sailors looked upon the j hip as lust and wanted to bo off in the boats, and their example had its influence on many of the pass ngers. j Captain Dunning and three or four other army officers stood at the boats with cocked pistols, and prevented the rush which would have taken place. The ship was headed so as to keep the flames forward, and the work of lowering the boats and telling off thoir complement was beL'un by a few cool-headed men. There were boits enough to accommodate all, and when this was realised the cowards aud skulkers took heart and offered their asaisbuice. There was need of haste, and for thi« reason some of the boats put off without water or piovisione, while rthers had only a vort ' "hovt supply. The boat in which young Johnson and bis uncle got away had a four gallon keg of water and a bag of biscuits, but the latter were rendered almost u«eleP a by the shipping of a pea, which likewi°e nearly swamped the bt>at There were in all fourteen persons, all adults except the one. Of these four wern women, three of whom were wives, and the fourth was a waiting maid. None of the boats contained fewer persons, and gome of them carried five or six more. All had been provided with maßta and sails and oars, and the location of the ship, about 100 miles off the Cape, was quite generally understood. When the Captain finally left the ship he called the boats about him and gave such general instructions a8 he believed would insure their safety. He propoped to hold up for St. Paul de Loanda, then the nearest port of civilisation. Thit! wa« a matter of 300 miles, but could be tnadn in four or five days and nights if the ■weather proved favourable. Ifc was ordered that the boats keep together, and that at noon of that day it was now com ing daylight —there should be a general rii-* tribution of provisions, so that all should share alike. During the latter part of the night, and up to 7 o'clock in the morn ng, the breeze was very light, but the boats had scarcely got the course to steer when a bank of clouds rolled up, the breeze increased to half a gale, and the horrois of shipwreck in mid ocean lowered down on each frail craft. While an effort was made to keep together, noonday came to find the fleet so scat tered that the people in young Jolineon's boat could distinguish only one other, and that one rapidly passing from their sight. The boat was in charge of the ship's third mate, a Mr Weldrum. He proved to be a man without nerve or authority. Aside from Captain Dunning, young Roberts and the four women mentioned, there were no other passengers. This made six passengers to eight sailors, and as the captain was the only man, the sailors seemed to feel that they had things their ovn way. In this the mate sided with them. The passengers were huddled together in cramped quarters, the terror of the womon was ridiculed and scoffed at, and while the sailors drank their fill from the water keg, the people amidships were supplied with scarcely enough to wet their tongues. Captain Dunning indignantly protested against their treatment, and was coolly answered by one of the sailors that if anybody was to suffer it should be the passengers. The boat was overI loaded anyhow, he said, and if he had his way he would pitch all the women overboard. This speech opened the eyes of the Captain to the fact that he had a heartless lot of men to deal with, and that in cabe of further disaster or prolonged voyaging they would stick at nothing. He rejoiced exceedingly over the fact that he had brought his pistols with him. In case of a conflict the one single man would be a match for the eight. "Of all the boats only one was lost, the others being picked up by an England brig. Of the four womon in our boat Miss Richardson's fate has been told. One of the others was dead when they came to lift her up, and the other two were so near perishing that it was weeks before they were restored to health and strength. My uncle made a report to the captain of the ship, but as that officer was burdened with his own personal troubles he did not carry the matter further, and np investigation was

ever made by the legal authorities. "At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, after the last boat had passed from sight, the little craft was struck by a 3quall and her mast snapped in twain. It was a close shave that sail and mast did not go overboard, but the case was bad enough as it was. It was a quartering wind off the land, with a smart

eoa following, and although a shift waa made to ueo an oar in place of the mast, more or less water was shipped, and the progress of the boat waa greatly lessened. However, before midnight the wind abated and the sea went down, and the terror-stricken women revived enough to call for water and food. Water waa given them in small quantities, but the biscuit had long ago become a doughy mass which no one would taste. When they moaned with pain and hunger then were roughly ordered to "phut up "and be thankful that none of them had been thrown overboard to lighten the boat. The mate had by this time loßt all his authority, and was ob served to be on the beet of terms with all the men. There was no eompaM in the boat, and as the weather continued cloudy, the Bailors lO9t their reckoning. But for this, they would have attempted to carry out a plan which one of the women heard them discussing. This was to rob the paßsengers of what money and jewellery they had brought along, pitch them overboard, and then make for tho land, trusting that they might hang off and on until picked up by a ship "The next day broke fair, with but little wind and pea. The land, according to Captain Durrniog's notion, was dead ahead, but the sailors disputed this, find as events proved, headed out into tho Atlantic. The water keg was emptied that morning, ono of the men drinking at least halt a pint while some of the women did not get above three thimblefula. The storm having passed, the Run cumo out hot and the weather became mugf/y, and before no®n there was real guttering. Each woman was fully dressed, and each had brought with her more or less jewellery. Aa the weather cleared up the bedraggled and suffering wretches had little or no hope lett. Captain Dunning sought to encourage them, but they crouched down in the boat and refused to better thbii' condition. The paugs of hunger came sharp upon the sailors after noon, it now being forty hours since they hud eaten. A part of them int-ietesd that the course was wrong and w*re for heading j another way, buc the wind settled the j question by dying entirely out 41 There was much wrangling among tho nailors during the afternoon," said Johnson, "and two or three times I saw knives drawn. My uncle asked no questions, nor were any put to him. They ignored us entirely, except now and then to curse one of the women for groaning out. I was in good flesh and a hardy boy, and up to this time I ha s not suffcrrrl f cr *-ho want of food. It seemed that I could drink a whole pail of water, but I fought the idea away ac much as possible, and secured considerable satisfaction by holding a motal button in my mouth. When the sun wont down and the calm still held the sailors were curping in a way terrible to hear, and my uncle whispered to me that he expected something dreadful to happen before morning. What it was I did not ask him, for ] was under the influence of a great foar. A-^the buat lost steerage way the sailor* hai coo£V-ga f H forward, while the passengers had moved aft. We were thuo divided off. The nearest oae to the pailors was Wr« Ridictrdaou, the luJy's maid, She had boon overcome from the very outset, and since getting away from the ship has been lying in a stupor. I can't say that she wapn't dead when the darkness of that night shut down. My uncle pullod some ot the women further astern as night came, but I do not think she moved. "I set out to keep awake at night, but sleep °oon overcame me. and it \v«is morning when I awoke. It 'vas the angry voices of tho men which aroused me, and I found that my uucle had moved to the centre of tho buat and had Jus pistols out. Throo of the mun had onus uplifted and the others h.yt drawn their kni* e a . Them was "ometh: q of a bretZt. l.ut the h., «t. was left to itself. I looked around to find Mi*s Kichardson gone, and 1 soon understood tho (situation A couple of hours before da» bieak and whilo my undo was asleep, thn men had pulUfl her body forward. I mopnt .gay. g ay th°t *b°y turned cannibals. There were blood fetains undo* their feet, o i>* it appeared aa if they had drunk her bio >d at least. This *h«y denied to a man attrrward, declaring that she was dead, and ■T •>' '-"i corpse w"* i'unif over to lighten the boat and make more room. However that might have been, they had sprung up at daybreak and dnmandod that ono of tho women be given up to them to appease hunger and thirst. My undo arguwd and coaxed and threatened, but in the end he had to brinp out his pis tol and declare that he would shoot the first man who approached. They were a desperate lot ot fellows, but there was that in his demeanour which made them pause. The result, 1 think, would have been a rush at him, for they seemed reckless of their live?, but for a sight which I was first to discover. It was that of a eail in the north. As soon as I had shouted my discovery a truce was tacitly agreed upon, and both oars and sail were put into use to work up to the stranger. It was a French p hip bound around the Cape, and she had already picked up two of our boats. She ran down to us in a couple of hours, and we found the crews of the Captain and the bosuns boats safe and sound on her decks ro greet us."