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

The Steward Succumbs

The Steward Succumbs.

"There is little more I need tell you. At Maullin we stayed nine days, then we were taken in a small steamer to another port, where we were lodged a day and a night in a rough old sailors' boardinghouse. The steward died at this place after his feet, which were badly frost-bitten, had been amputated at the hospital. Finally we went on to Valparaiso, where we arrived on June 4. Most of the men were then well enough to go to a boardinghouse, but I and another seaman named Waddilove, a son of Captain Waddilove, of Wellington, were sent to the hospital. I was laid up for ten weeks, but luckily have not lost any of my toes, as Waddilove has. We were most kindly treated in the hospital by the English lady visitors, especially by a Mrs. Gibbons, who is well known in Valparaiso to sailormen because of her association with the Missions to Seamen. Well, I came home as a 'D.B.S.' on the Oriana, and arrived at Liverpool last week. I'm still hobbling about, but in a week or so I reckon I'll be fairly all right. As you know, this was my first voyage on a deep-water ship, and it is going to be my last. The coasting trade of New Zealand, when I get out there again, will be quite good enough for me."