THE WRECK OF THE MALTA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1983, 17 December 1889, Page 3

THE WRECK OF THE MALTA.

The story of the loss of the Canard liner Malta off the Land’s End does not materially differ from many other tale that is written in the great book of maritime disaster; but there is much in its simple details which appeals powerfully to the imagination. The original source of trouble was that old and dreaded enemy of those that navigate the watery highways—a heavy sea mist such as that which the master-pen of the author of “ Les Travailleurs de la Mer ” has described with such impressive minuteness. Night and day are pretty much as one when this insidious foe wraps the doomed vessel in its dripping fold; but it was about six in the evening, when dusk was gathering on the sea and shore, that the coastguard and the inhabitants of the little village of ’Pendeen caught sight through the fog of the pale glimmer of rockets, and heard the familiar sound of the signal guns, ihe Malta, feeling her way and taking soundings step by step, had suddenly struck on the Castle Rock, near Cape Cornwall, one of the roughest and wildest spots off the North Cornwall Coast, High above rose the almost perpendicular cliff, and the only possibility of landing a shipwrecked crew by means of boats lay in their making their way to a narrow cove not easily to be found between the rocks. It was in the hope of directing them to this harbor of refuge that the people of Pendeen, knowing well every nook and cranny of that inhospitable coast, gathered with lanterns and torches, creeping round the base of the cliff, and striving to raise their voices above the noise of the rolling waves until a boat that had been despatched from the vessel to grope its way shoreward and report what chances presented themselves made its presence known to them. Then two Cornish miners, the brothers Edmund and William Roberts, bravely waded out, and springing aboard at the risk of their lives, steered the little craft through the narrow way that led to calmer waters. Unhappily the conduct of the scratch crew of the Malta had from the first been disorderly and insubordinate, and one of the occupants of the boat at this point selfishly deserted his comrades. The others, however, faithfully returned to the wreck, and thanks to the exertions of the captain and his officers, all of those aboard the Malta were, in spite of the untoward accident of the upsetting of a boat, eventually conveyed into the welcome haven. Even here their troubles were not ended. There was yet much wearisome and perilous climbing to be done, in the course of which some of the ladies of the party fainted; but at last the welcome summit of the cliff was gained, and while the unfortunate vessel, since become a total wreck, was beating on the rocks, the shipwrecked crew and passengers gathered round the hospitable fires of the Pendeen cottagers to compare notes and talk over the perils they had escaped.