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

Death of the Boy

Death of the Boy.

"Fine weather and a fair wind came on the morning of May 5. We set the lug again and made fine speed through the water. Right on from that time we had fairly good weather and a favourable wind. But it was fearfully cold, although we had hardly felt it so when we put off from the ship. I wish I could describe to you the desolateness of that fortnight. We sighted no ships; hardly expected to, in fact. And we hardly ever saw the sun. Overhead it was claudy, grey, and gloomy, and cold, bitterly cold. Everyone in our boat was frost-bitton, more or less.

"It is rather a curious experience, and perhaps you will hardly believe me when I tell you that I did not know I had been bitten until I got a shore at Maullin. The one who suffered most was our littlepage 350 cabin boy. It was his first voyage. He was only 16, and he died through frostbites and exposure just when, as I have said, we were nearing land. I believe he was off his head for the last two or three days, for I used to hear him chattering away to himself. On the night before he died we warmed some soup over an oil-lamp we had and tried to force some down his throat, but his teeth were clenched almost as if had lockjaw, and he could not swallow. That night I heard him gasping, and shortly after he died. I didn't see him buried, poor little chap, for they dropped him overboard whilst I was dozing. He was a Liverpool lad, and we were all mighty sorry to see him go under, almost on our last day in the boat.

"I need not tell you that we did everything possible to make the boat weatherly for her 1500 mile run. A couple of oars were lashed together and placed fore and aft in the boat, and over this we stretched the canvas boat cover, leaving an opening forward to work the lug, and another opening aft to steer her. Practically we decked her over, so that when an extra heavy sea wallowed over the gunwale it shot clear over the other side. This saved us many a bitter drenching, for we huddled up underneath and made ourselves as 'comfy' as was possible. Apart from the cold, the weather, right from May 5 to May 16, when we landed at Maullin, was fairly good. We had the wind on our quarter, and the boat sailed well under her lug sail. We were going to the northward all the time, and on the day we landed it was not at all cold.