AWFUL SUFFERINGS OF A SHIP'S CREW.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 350, 14 September 1868, Page 2

AWFUL SUFFERINGS OF A SHIP'S CREW.

MEN REDUCED TO CANNIBALISM. Mr. C. T. Bennett (a Newfoundland merchant), of Bristol, has received some awful details of the sufferings of the crew of the Queen of Swansea, which was lost off Cape St. John, in December. The Queen struck on G-ull Island, on the morning of the 12th December. The captain and ten others got on shore by means of a hawser ; the other four went off in the ship, and must have met a watery grave. On the morning of the 21st April, the schooner Selina, Benjamin Rousell, master, was off the island sealing. One of his men, in a punt, wounded a duck, which he followed into the cove, and there found the remains of the unfortunate people. He immediately came on to Tilt cove and reported to Mr Gill, *ho despatched Mr Mullony, accomDanied by Captain Hoskins and Captain Moyle. They returned with the eleven bodies the following morning, and had them all buried in one graveyard. The worst has yet to be told. There can be but little doubt the survivors last to die must have subsisted on human flesh. Two of the bodies were perfect skeletons; all the flesh eaten from their bones. Another one had three stabs near the heart, and a number 01 slices cut from his breast and arm, the knife lying beside him. Captain Owens and G-renalda Hoskins must have been the last to die, as they lay over

the others, and the man with the stabs and cuts close to them. On the person of Captain Owens were found two notes, in both of which he speaks of the dreadful sufferings he and his men were enduring, and how they had given up all hope of deliverance. " W- tind G. Hoskins," in a letter to " Dear Father and Mother, Sisters and Brother," say, " We have been fasting 103 hours ; bu do not grieve for us ; we are giving our devotion to prayer. There is no one dead yet, but getting very weak, all hands." A letter was iound on the person of Mr. P. Dowsley, addressed to his wife, in which, after giving particulars as to how'.they were driven on the rock, he says :—" We were dragged up the cliff by means of a rope tied round our waists. Not one of us saved a single thing but as we stood, not even a bite of bread. This is our fifth day, and we have not had a bit or sup, not even a drink of water, there being no such thing on the island. It is void of everything that would give us any comfort; it is so barren and bleak that we cannot get wood to make a fire to warm us ; our bed is on the cold rocks and snow, with a piece of thin canvass full of glitter to cover us. You may fancy what my sufferings have been and are ; you know I was never very strong or robust. My feet are all swelling, and I am getting very weak. I expect that if Providence does not send us a boat or a vessel along this way to-day or to-morrow at furthest, that some of us will be no more, and I very much fear that I will be the first victim. If so you will not have the gratification of getting my body, as they will make use of it for food. I am famishing with thirst; I would give the 20s I took with me —yes, all I ever saw—for one drink of water. If I had plenty of water I would live much longer. I feel a dreadful feverish thirst, and no means of relieving it ... I

plainly see that in a few hours I must shortly appear before my God. Whilst I am writing this under our little bit of canvas, lam shivering with weakness and cold from head to foot ; I dont know how I have written what I have, but this I can say, the facts are worse than I have named. Give my love to my darling childreu, and tell them to think often of my sad fate ; tell them I leave it as my dying request to be kind and obedient to you, and to be advised by you in everything. I must now conclude, my darling, as lam unable to write more. Embrace my darling children, and tell them to be obliging and kind to each other, for without this they cannot expect to prosper. Tell them their unfortunate, unhappy father leaves them his blessing." In auot!\er letter, written two days later, Dowsley says:—" We have had no relief ; our case is hopeless ; our sufferings arebecomingunbearable.' This is the last letter witten. Completely exhausted, the unfortunate snen appear to have huddled together, waiting for each other's deahth. What afterwards took place has already been told.