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White Wings Vol I. Fifty Years Of Sail In The New Zealand Trade, 1850 TO 1900

A Fine Weather Start

A Fine Weather Start.

After describing the discovery of the fire, and the strenuous efforts of the crew to master it, the writer goes on: "It was at last a case of 'Leave her, Johnny, leave her,' and at noon on May 3 we hoisted the boats over the side. I was in the skipper's boat, the one that made Maullin, and I believe the mate's boat was never heard of again. It was a beautiful day when we took to the boats, clear and bright, not much wind, but with a big ocean roll on. There were 13 men in our boat—the captain, second mate, steward, seven A.B.'s (one of whom acted as sailmaker), two ordinary seamen, and Willie Kearns, the cabin boy. This little chap 'went under' just before we landed, and was buried at sea.

"We took all the clothes we could—practically put our chests on our backs. as the saying goes, and of course we did not forget our oilers and sea-boots. For provisions we had about three bags of biscuits, some tinned food out of the pantry, and some 13 gallons of water in a couple of breakers. We should have taken more, only, as the fire was raging aft, we could not get into the lazarette where the stores were kept. That spell of fine weather lasted about twelve hours, and we set the lug sail and stood away to the north-east. But at midnight it came on bad and blew a proper gale. We had to put out the sea anchors and heave the boat to. That was on May 3, the day we left her. During May 4 the gale continued, and we lay to the sea anchors. I might say that we lost sight of the mate's boat on the first night, and as we got well away from the Pitcairn Island we saw the flames bursting out of the after deck-house, which was used as a sail locker.