SEARCH FOR MISSING SEAMEN.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2403, 3 December 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

SEARCH FOR MISSING SEAMEN.

o £IOOO REWARD OFFERED.

The Argus of a late date contains the following;—Wc have boon requested to draw attention to a reward of £IOOO, winch is offered for tho discovery alive of two young men named Alexander and Robert Murray, cx-Conway cadets, and sons of Lieut-Colonol Murray, of 5G Horne-hill, London, who were lost at sea on July 1(5, 188(1, under the circumstances mentioned below. The lads belonged to tho ship Earl of Jersey, which was on its way out to Singapore at the time the events to be narrated occurred. On Friday July 16, when the vessel was in latitude 40 deg, S. longitude Odeg. IV. , during a fresh gale from the northward, with occasional rain squalls and a moderately high sea, a man named Hood, who was engaged in reeling the arizen topsail, fell overboard seemingly unhurt. A life buoy was thrown to him and the lifeboat promptly lowered, being manned by the second mate, Alexander Murray, an ex-Worcester cadet named Middleton, a steward, a boatswain, and two A. B’s. Two men being still required to complete the crew, the captain called for volunteers, but the men held hack until tho boat was under the stern, when Robert Murray, who had just come upon the scene, boldly sprang into the water and was pulled into the boat, which then went in search of Hood. Whether the unfortunate man was picked up by the boat was not knowo, for the life-boat never returned to the ship, and was never seen after it was lost sight of in a rainsquall shortly after leaving the ship. The captain of the Earl of Jersey searched for four days for tho missing boat but without avail, and then proceeded on his voyage. It was thought at the time that the boat must have capsized, as the ship was kept in such a position that the boat might always run down to it before the sea and wind, and guns were fired and lights burnt at night to attract the boat's attention. That the boat did not reach the ship under the circumstances appear' to prove the accuracy of the captain’s theory; but there is a possibility that tho boat’s crew may have been driven upon some of the numerous islands in the locality, and are still alive. Colonel and Mrs Murray, the parents of the bravo lads who showed such promptitude in the hour of danger, cling to the view with remarkable tenacity, and have offered tho reward mentioned above in the hope that captain’s of ships navigating in the latitude in which tho boat was missed may thereby bo induced to search Nightingale, Inaccessible, Prince Edward, Marion, or any other islands upon which the crew is likely to have taken refuge. Gough Island and Tristan d’Aounha, which are in pretty close proximity to the scene of the accident, have been searched, but without effect, and the Admiralty have issued orders that the next vessel that visits Tristan d’Acnnha shall call at Nightingale and Inaccessible Islands. Captain Wiggins, a well-known navigator and explorer, who is thoroughly acquainted with these sons, was consulted on tho matter and ho has given it as his opinion that as the wind and current are westerly, the men may be found on tho Prince Edward or Crosier group of islands or oven on the Kerguelen group. Tho boat being a life-boat, if capsized, he thinks, would not have sunk, but probably have stranded on some of the islands he mentions, and it is not at all improbable that some of its crew may still survive, if they were fortunate enough to reach land. Without a visit to these Islands the point cannot be determined, and it is in the hope that some enterprising and sympathetic ship owner or master may bo induced to pay tbe visit that Lieutenant-Colonel Murray offers the reward of £IOOO for the discovery alive of his sons. [The above statement, our readers maybe interested to know, was forwarded to us by Lady Brassey, under cover of a letter written on board the yacht Sunbeam, and dated ‘ ‘ Port Darwin, Sept oth.’ Tbe letter and its enclosure have only just reached us. The lamented death of Lady Brassey took place on September 14ih, while the Sunbeam was on her voyage from Port Darwin to Mauritius.— Ed. A.]