THE SKELETON OF THE WRECK

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 134, 1 September 1870, Page 7

THE SKELETON OF THE WRECK

While Sir Michael Seymour was in command of the Amethyst frigate, and was cruising in the Bay of Biscay, the wreck of a merchant ship drove past. Her deck was just above water ; her lower mast alone standing. Not a soul could be seen on board ; but there was a cubhouse on deck, which had the appearance of having been recently patched with old canvas and tarpaulin, as if to afford shelter to some forlorn remnant of the crew. It blew at this time a strong gale ; but Sir Michael listened only to the dictates humanity, ordered the ship to be put about, and sent off a boat with instructions to board the wreck, and ascertain whether there was any being still surviving, whom the help of his fellow-men might save from the grasp of death. The boat rowed towards the drifting mass ; and while struggling with the difficulty of getting through a high running sea close alongside, the crew shouting all the time as loud as they could, an object resembling in appearence a bundle of clothes was observed to roll out of the cubhouse against the lee shrouds of the mast. With the end of tho boathook th^y managed to get hold of it, and hauled it into the boat, when it proved to be the trunk of a nvm, bent head and knees together, and so wasted away as scarce to be felfc within the ample clothes which had once fitted it in a state of life and strengtl). The boat's crew hastened back to the Amethyst with this miserable remuant of mortality ; and so small was it in bulk that a lad of fourteen years of agft was able with his own hands to lift it into the ship. When placed on deck, it showed for the first time, to the astonishment of all, signs of remaining life ; it tried to move, and next moment muttered in a low sepulchral tone, " There is another man. v The instant those words were heard. Sir Michael ordered to shove oft' again for tlie wrcclc. The sea now having become somewhat smoother, they succeeded this time in boarding the wreck ; and, on looking into the cubhouse, the}' found two other human bodies, wasted like tlie other one they hfid sf-voil to the very bones, but without the least spark of life remaining. They were sitting in. a shrunk-up posture, a hand of one resting on a tinpot, in which there was a gill of water ; and a hand of the other reaching tc tlie deck, as if to regain a bit of raw salt beef of the size of a walnut which had dropped from its nerveless grasp. Unfortunate men ! They had starved on their scanty store, till they had not strengh remaining to lift the last morsel to their mouths ! The boat's crew, having completed their melancholy survey, returned on board, where they found the attention of the ship's company engrossed by the efforts made to preserve the generous skeleton, who seemed to have had just life left enough to breathe the remembrance that there was still " another man," his companion in suffering, to be saved. Captain Seymour committed him to the special charge of the surgeon, who spared no means which humanity or skill could suggest to achieve the noble object of creating anew, as it were, a fellow creature, whom famine had stripped of almost every living enegry. For three weeks he scarcely ever left his patient, giving him nourishment with his own hand every five or ten minutes ; and at the end of three weeks more the "skeleton of the wreck" was seen walking on the deck of the Amethyst ; and to the surprise of all who recollected that he had been lifted into the ship by a cabin-boy, presented the stately figure of a man nearly six feet high !

What is a Rosiere ? It is a timehonouved custom, observed in several villages in France, which annually selects the best conducted girl, and crowns her with a wreath of roses in tbe chapel, to the softest strains of music, and the most jubilant of masses. And as nothing can take place in France without noise, the fire brigade men blow their trumpets, and the national guard carries arms, and stands at ease often beyond toe regulation time. The citizens vote by ballot in the chapel, for such of the twelve candidates they like best, when the votes are counted, the priest mounts the pulpit and declares the state of the poll. Then the organ nearly bursts its pipes, and the bells crack their sides for joy. Two young men rush to the residence of the elect, and hang bunches of " may" over the door, a godmother appears, and presents a watch to the " infant," the Mayor hands in a savings bank book, with something nice to the credit side. A feast winds up the proceedings, but the priestess cannot marry before the end of the year of her office. "What is most singular is, these elect generally die spinsters, although declared by a plebiscite to be fit and proper persons for matrimony. Value of the Derby. — The official " Calendar" gives the number of subscribers to the Derby as 252, making the value of the stakes £6175,