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

An Awful Ordeal

An Awful Ordeal.

A thrilling experience befel Mr. George Andrews, of St. Austel, Cornwall, who was one of seven rescued from a floating spar some hours after the disaster. "In about ten minutes after the ship had been struck," he said, in describing the calamity, "she turned over on her beam-ends on the port side, and the passengers clung to the rigging." He had taken charge of a Miss Logan, a young lady 18 years of age, who rushed out of her cabin, attired only in her nightdress. He took off his greatcoat and put it on her, and when the ship heeled over he caught her around the waist and got into the mizzen rigging. A passenger named Golding, who had a little child in his arms, was near him. In this position they remained upwards of an hour. The passengers that kept clinging to the rigging shouted to the steamer to save them. About a quarter of an hour after the ship was thrown on her beam-ends, Captain Canney, who was on the side of the wreck, was swept overboard by a sea and disappeared.

Perceiving that the ship was fast sinking, Andrews proposed to Golding to crawl along the mizzenmast, which was resting on the water, as the vessel, in going down, would be likely to right. The unfortunate fellow replied that he thought it would be better to remain where he was. Mr. Andrews, with Miss Logan in his arms, then made an effort to get along the mast. The poor girl, however, if not dead, was completely exhausted, and in getting her up on the mast he was several times nearly overcome himself. On reaching the crosstrees, a sea caught them both, took the girl from his arms, and she was swept away. He believed, however, that she had before expired. The sea even caused him to lose his hold, and it was only through a desperate effort that he succeeded in regaining his grasp. He saw poor Golding and the child he was so anxious to save swept into the deep. The hull of the ship then gradually went down, and he saw forty or fifty men, women, and children struggling in the waves, screaming for aid. Their cries were heard a few minutes, and all was over. He then made his way up to the mizzenmast head, and a little boy named Sutton (whose parents and brother and sister perished), a passenger, and the chief steward, managed to hold on the rigging of the yard near him. Three others got up to the maintopmast head. About half-past eleven o'clock their cries were heard by a Deal lugger, and, benumbed and almost half dead, they were taken off.