A Sea Story of the Early Sixties.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8057, 27 February 1906, Page 4

A Sea Story of the Early Sixties.

The "Fenny Magazine" (London) has published some interesting mai*a with the loss of the "Grafton," which set Bail from Sydney, New South "Wales, on 12th November, 18G3, and was wrecked among the Auckland Islands. There, as is well known, the crew lived for eighteen months Robinson Crusoe fashion, and as amplifying the account of this Mr. Julian Sarpy has sent the paper named a letter which is so interesting that we may be forgiven for quot« It: "Althoughbut a lad at the time, Iro* member well my with the pilot on the Grafton,' eves Vo U l s last words to Captain Musgrave on leaving the vessel to return to Sydney. They wero, • God speed you, gentlemen, and take care; we shall soon have a southerly buster.' The 'Grafton' was bound for Campbell Island, the expedition Ji.-wing been equipped to search for a tit..mine which my grandfather, Mr. Thomas "Underwood, chief clerk in the Surveyor General's Office in Sydney, had discovered there some years before. My father, Mr. Charles Sarpy, in conjunction with a partner, Mr. Musgrave, who was uncle of Thomas Murgrave, the oaptain of the 'Grafton,' financed the expedition, and if the tin mine was not found Captain Musgrave was under orders to fill op with a cargo of seals, the oil and skins of which would result in a profitable voyage F. E. Baynal, who occupied the position of mate in the crew, was really a mining prospector, and engaged because of that qualification. By birth he was a Frenchman, born in the same town as my father, namely, Moissac (Tarne-et-Garonne). Captain Musgrave hailed from America, and the other three members of the crew were Alexander MacLarren, a Norwegian; Henry Forges, & Portuguese; and George Harris, an Englishman. Two other men shown in tha photograph were pilots, whose names.! have forgotten. The 'Grafton' reached Campbell Island, after a very stormy voyage on December Ist; search was made for the tin mine without success, and the vessel with five seals (a most disappointing capture) set sail for Sydney, but was wrecked in the Southern Bay of Auckland Islands. Months passing, and nothing being heard of the * Grafton 1 or its crew, application was made by the owners of the vessel to Commodore Wiseman, then commanding the fleet on the Australian Station, to send a ship in search of the missing boat, but this was refused on the ground that if the crew lmd been castaway, eo long a time had elapsed that the men could not possibly be alive. Raynal, the mate, was more clever in his resources of overcoming difficulties (he had spent eleven years in different Australian mining camps) even than was represented in tie story you published, and tLis is corroborated by tho articles manufactured by him *vhich arc now to be seen in the Melbourne Museum. He made a pair of blacksmith's bellows of seal-skin, a pair uf boats from the s<ime material, tanning the skin, and a needle from the bone of an albatross wing. In addition there is shown a piece of tanned tcalskin, aud the journal kept by Captain Musgrave, 'Castaway at the Auckland Isles.'"