FEARFUL SHIPWRECK.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2034, 17 April 1890, Page 4

FEARFUL SHIPWRECK.

Intebcbegill, April 14. News was received late on Saturday of the wreck of the barque Emilie, which left the Bluff on the 25th ult. with a cargo of timber for Port Pirie, under charter to J. G- Ward. The day after leaving the vessel was struck by a squall and thrown on her beam ends, and Captain Small and seven men were washed overboard. The vessel drifted into Doughboy Bay, Codfish Island, south of Stewart Island, and about forty miles from the Bluff. The survivors, consisting of the mate and three men, landed and walked to Mason’s Bay, where they fell in with a party of mutton birders. On receipt of the news Mr Ward telegraphed to the Premier, who authorised the despatch of the Bluff Harbor Board’s tug in search of castaways. She found a party at Mason’s Bay, and returned to the Bluff at 12.45 a.m. to-day. The survivors came up by train and were taken to the hospital. The mate is very weak.

The Emilie was a barque of 720 tons, a Nicaraguan vessel, and last from Melbourne. She had 461,750 feet of timber on board for the New Zealand Pioe Company, which was insured for £IBSO in the New Zealand and Union offices in equal shares. The names of the survivors are Jnoj Brownrigg (first mate), Joseph Green, George Cummings, and William Meek, A.B.’s.

The Emilie was commanded by Captain Q-. L, Small, of Boston, with the following officers and crew-John Brownrigg (first mate) H. Morgan (second mate),E. McConuel (steward), W. Fleming (carpenter), and seamen E. Tarnall, George Henry, Christian Holm, George Green, Chas. Cummings, and W. L. Meek. The vessel was twentr-five years old, and was formerly known as the Arabella.

It appears that the morning after the vessel left the Bluff, when just losing sight of land, a N.W. squall struck her and laid her on her beam ends, tremendous quantities of water washing over her. An attemot was made to launch a boat, but availing spar cut it in two. The captain and one man in it were drowned. The fore and main masts were then cut away and the vessel righted, but while this was being done six more men were washed overboard- The survivors lashed themselves to the mizzen rigging and drifted towards the west coast of Stewart Island for five days without food, being unable to leave the rigging on account of the violence of the sea. The vessel drove on shore at Doughboy Bay, and broke up. The survivors got ashore and were rescued by a party of mutton-birders, as already described, George Green, A. B. of the wrecked barque, giving an intelligent account of the disaster, describing the position of the survivors after the vessel righted says I stayed in the mizzen rigging till dark, when I formed a bag of the spanker, which I lashed to the stump of the mast, and all got into it. The seas were making a clean breach over the hulk, and all would have perished but for this device. I had nothing to eat or drink and my clothes were saturated. I lost the reckoning of the days, and cannot say whether itwas the 30th or 81st March about sunset that the wreck drove ashore in Doughboy Bay. Meek, who was delirious and suffering greatly from thirst, jumped overboardand managed to swim ashore, where he came across a creek, and after drinking eagerly lay down and slept in a flax bush all night. The mate, I, and Gumming, remained on the vessel till next morning. We were in a most miserable and desperate condition, and Gumming jumped overboard to swim ashore. He was too weak and sank. When he rose I threw him a rose and I pulled him aboard again. We then turned into the spanker and remained till daylight, when the ship broke up and the sea was soon strewn with timber and other wreckage upon which I floated ashore, I found the mate lying helpless on the rocks. Hone wore boots, because the second day after the vessel went over our feet began to swell, so we threw the boots i away. 1 he mate bad gumboots and did not try to remove them until three days after he got ashore, which was nine days after the gale. He tried to take off the boots but could no 1 -, the pain being too great. He then cut the boots away, and as he removed them his toe nails dropped off, and his feet appeared quite dead. I feel sure that if he had thrown off his boots at first he would have been all right, for they undoubtedly caused mortification. After being six days without anything to eat or drink we got fresh water and a few limpets, which, together with seaweed, we subsisted on for a whole week. We were roaming about-on a rugged coast, sleeping sometimes in the bush and sometimes among the rocks. It rained nearly the whole time. Our feet were cut and bruised with travelling; our clothes not only soaked but torn to rags clamberin» about,and on the fourth day ashore the mate’s legs got so bad and he became so weak that he lost heart. We were travelling about all the time, expecting to find a hut where we could get food. The mate said that he could come no further; that he would lie down to die, We left him and worked our way round the bay and on the fifth day asliors caught two woodhens the first wholesome food we had had This revived us a little. Next day we found a dead seal, and only for that none of us would have been alive now. We cut a bole iu him, drank the blood, and then ate the raw food, for we had no matches.

The seventh day ashore was the first dry day, and we sat on the rocks, dried ourselves in the sun, and sang hymns. We were just about to try to travel again when we sighted the cutter, which we thought had been sent in for us. Wei made signals but they could not see us, and we wandered on until sundown and slept in the grass. That night I dreamt that the cutter came next morning to take her off and, sure enough, she did come. We saw her next_ day in the bay, and afterwards noticed a small boat 'J he cutter had been attracted by the wreckage, and bad come into the bay I suppose to see if there were anv survivors, shut, finding none, left again. The occupants of the boat that remained were G. and T. Newton, Hare Huri, Q-. and H. Cross, and c! Pratt, mutton birders. I hey found the mate upon a steep cliff, hanging on to a branch of a tree, unable either to get up or down. After getting him aboard in a very emaciated state they came round and took us in. That was on Tuesday last, twelve days after the wreck. The treatment received from Newton’s party at Mutton Bird Island was so kind that I and the others are unable to express our gratitude. Our feet were in a dread lul state, and they tore up every piece of linen and rags they could find, bound them up, and dressed them with mutton bird oil. They sat up with the mate, who was more dead than alive, day and night, and were continually putting warm sand to his feet to bring them to life. They also tried bags of salt, which they changed almost every hour, night and day.

All three men agree that the vessel was thoroughly unsecworthy. Green said: She was one of the worst old traps that ever filled with sea water, and was not fit to be afloat. Any seaworthy boat would have stood the weather all right. I have been in mubh worse. All the canvas was taken off her before she went on her beam ends. The sails, ropes, and rigging were rotten—in fact,there was nothing but red paint holding her together. The mate (Brownrigg) died in the hospital about fifteen minuter after admission.

April 15. Au inquest was held to-day on the body of John Brownrigg, mate of the wrecked barque Emilie, who died in the hospital shortly after his admission from gangrene of the limbs and exhaustion. Charles Gumming, one of the survivors, deposed that when the vessel left the Bluff he and others of the crew knew that she was not fit for sea. She had no canvas that would stand any sort of a breeze, and the standing rigging was in a bad condition, the bolts in the topsides being as loose as if the wood round them were decayed. The bolts that fastened the decks to the beams were nearly all eaten away by rust. Several of the crew told the people at the Bluff that the ship would never reach Port Pirie if she met rough weather. The captain told Gumming aud others who joined at the Bluff to take a look at the vessel the day before signing the articles. They said that they would not disappoint him, and joined the ship. They spoke to the constable at the Bluff about the ship’s condition but made no official complaint. Those of the crew who had been in the barque before told him that she had five feet of water in the hold when she went into the dry dock at Melbourne, and that on the voyage from San Francisco they were at the pumos day and night. Had the vessel been sound the disaster would not have happened, the gale not being anything serious, and had the canvas not been rotten they could have weathered the breeze by running before the wind. At this stage Mr Ward, who had chartered the vessel, informed the coroner that a nautical enquiry would be held into the wreck. The examination of Gumming then closed. It transpired that Brownrigg was a native of Canada, aged 56, and had two children resident in Upper Stanley street, Liverpool.