they were convinced that on the flowing of the tide all must be washed
off, many tried to get to the back or the sides of the cavern, beyond
the reach of the returning sea. Scarcely more than six, besides Mr.
Rogers and Mr. Brimer, succeeded; of the others, some shared the fate
which they had apprehended, and others perished in their efforts to
get into the cavern. Mr. Rogers and Mr. Brimer both reached it,
however, and scrambled up the rock, on narrow shelves of which they
fixed themselves. Mr. Rogers got so near his friend, Mr. Meriton, as
to exchange mutual congratulations with him. A warm friendship,
indeed, subsisted between these two gentlemen; they had made a long
and painful voyage together, in another Indiaman, where they survived
an uncommon mortality by which the crew were visited. They returned to
England, and an interval of only twenty-five days elapsed, before they
again embarked in the Halsewell.
Mr. Rogers on gaining this station, was so nearly exhausted, that had
his exertions been protracted only a few minutes longer, he must have
sunk under them. He was now prevented from joining Mr. Meriton, by at
least twenty men between them, none of whom could move without the
imminent peril of his life.
They found that a very considerable number of the crew, seamen, and
soldiers, and some petty officers, were in the same situation as
themselves, though many who had reached the rocks below, perished in
attempting to ascend. They could yet discern some part of the ship,
and in their dreary station solaced themselves with the hope of its
remaining entire until day-break; for in the midst of their own
distress, the sufferings of the females on board affected them with
the most poignant anguish; and every sea that broke, inspired them
with terror for their safety.
But, alas, their apprehensions were too soon realized!--Within a very
few minutes of the time that Mr. Rogers gained the rock, an universal
shriek, which long vibrated in their ears, in which the voice of
female distress was lamentably distinguished, announced the dreadful
catastrophe. In a few moments all was hushed, except the roaring of
the winds and the dashing of the waves; the wreck was buried in the
deep, and not an atom of it was ever afterwards seen.
The shock which this gave to the trembling wretches in the cavern was
awful. Though themselves hardly rescued from the sea, and still
surrounded by impending dangers, they wept for the destiny of their
unhappy companions. But this was not all. Many who had gained a
precarious station, weakened with injuries, benumbed and battered by
the tempest, forsook their hold-fasts, and, tumbling on the rocks
below, perished beneath the feet of their miserable companions. Their
dying groans and exclamations for pity, only tended to awaken more
painful apprehensions, and increase the terror of the survivors.
At length after three hours, which appeared so many ages, day broke,
but instead of bringing relief to the sufferers, it only served to
disclose the horrors of their situation. They now found, that had the
country been alarmed by the guns of distress which they had continued
to fire for many hours before the ship struck, but which were not
heard, owing to the violence of the storm, they could neither be
observed by the people from above, nor could any boat live below. They
were completely overhung by the cliff, so that no ropes let down could
reach them; nor did any part of the wreck remain as a guide to their
retreat.
The only prospect of saving themselves, was to creep along the side of
the cavern to its outward extremity, and on a ledge scarcely as broad
as a man's hand, to turn the corner, and endeavor to clamber up the
precipice, almost perpendicular, and nearly 200 feet high from the
bottom.--And in this desperate effort some did succeed, while others,
trembling with fear, and exhausted by the preceding conflict, lost
their footing and perished in the attempt.
The first who gained the top, were the cook and James Thompson, a
quarter-master; the moment they reached it, they hastened to the
nearest house and made known the condition of their comrades. This was
Eastington, the habitation of Mr. Garland, steward to the proprietors
of the Purbeck quarries. He immediately collected the workmen, and
procuring ropes with all possible despatch, made the most humane and
zealous exertions for the relief of the surviving people.
Mr. Meriton made a similar attempt to that of the two others, and
almost reached the edge of the precipice. A soldier who preceded him
had his feet on a small projecting rock or stone on which also Meriton
had fastened his hands to aid his progress. At this critical moment
the quarrymen arrived, and seeing a man so nearly within their reach,
they dropped a rope to him, of which he immediately laid hold; and in
a vigorous effort to avail himself of this advantage, loosened the
stone on which he stood, and which supported Mr. Meriton. It giving
way, Mr. Meriton must have been precipitated to the bottom, had not a
rope at that instant providentially been lowered to him, which he
seized, when absolutely in the act of falling, and was safely drawn to
the summit.
But the fate of Mr. Brimer was peculiarly severe. Only nine days
before the ship sailed, he had been married to a beautiful young lady,
the daughter of Captain Norman of the royal navy, in which service he
was a lieutenant, and now on a visit to an uncle at Madras; after
getting ashore with Mr. Rogers and up the side of the cavern, he
remained until morning, when he crawled out. A rope being thrown to
him, he was either so benumbed with cold as to fasten it insecurely
about his body, or from some other cause or agitation, to neglect
doing it completely; at the moment when about to be rescued from his
perilous stand, he fell and was dashed to pieces in the presence of
his companions.
More assistance was obtained as the day advanced; and as the efforts
of the survivors permitted, they crawled to the extremities of the
cavern and presented themselves to their preservers above, who stood
prepared to assist them. The means of doing so, was by two men boldly
approaching the very brink of the precipice, a rope being tied round
them and fastened to a strong iron bar fixed in the ground; behind
them were two more, the like number further back and so on. A strong
rope also properly secured, passed round them, by which they might
hold, and preserve themselves from falling. They then let down a rope
with a noose ready made, below to the cavern, and the wind blowing
hard, it was in some instances forced under the projecting rock,
sufficiently for the sufferers to reach it, without creeping out.
Whoever caught it, put the noose round his body, and was drawn up. The
distance from the top of the rock to the cavern, was at least an
hundred feet, and the rock projected about eight; ten feet formed a
declivity to the edge, and the rest was perpendicular.
Many, however, in attempting to secure themselves, shared the fate of
Mr. Brimer, and, unable, from weakness or perturbation, to benefit by
the assistance offered from above, they were at last precipitated from
the cliff, and were either dashed to pieces on the rocks below, or
perished in the waves.--Among those unhappy sufferers was one who
being washed off the rock, or falling into the sea, was carried out by
the return of the waves beyond the breakers, within which his utmost
efforts could never again bring him, but he was always further
withdrawn by the sea. He swam remarkably well, and continued to
struggle in sight of his companions, until his strength being
exhausted, he sunk to rise no more.
It was late in the day before all the survivors gained the land; one
indeed a soldier, remained in this precarious station until the
morning of Saturday the 7th of January; exposed to the utmost danger
and distress. When the officers, seamen and soldiers, were mustered
at the house of Mr. Garland, they were found to amount to
seventy-four; and these were the only persons saved out of rather more
than two hundred and forty that were on board when the ship sailed
through the Downs, including the passengers. It was supposed that
above fifty of the remainder reached the rocks, but were then washed
off or fell from the cliffs; and that fifty, or more, sunk with the
captain and the ladies in the round-house, when the after-part went to
pieces. An accurate account of the whole numbers in the ship could
never be obtained, as the last returns dispatched from her did not
arrive.
The whole who reached the summit of the rock survived, excepting two
or three who were supposed to have expired while drawing up, and a
black who died soon afterwards; though many were severely bruised.
Mr. Meriton and Mr. Rogers having been supplied with the necessary
means of making their journey by Mr. Garland, set off for London to
carry the tidings of this disaster to the India House, where they
arrived at noon, on Sunday the 8th. On the way they acquainted the
magistrates of the towns through which they passed, that a number of
shipwrecked seamen would soon be on the road to the metropolis. This
they did to avert any suspicions of their travelling for some other
intent. It is truly deserving of communication, that the master of the
Crown-Inn at Blandford, Dorsetshire, not only sent for all the
distressed seamen to his house, where he liberally refreshed them, but
presented each with half a crown on his departure.
By this unfortunate shipwreck, all the passengers perished. The ladies
were peculiarly endowed with beauty and accomplishments. The captain
was a man of distinguished worth; humane and generous. (He left,
besides those two daughters who suffered along with him, six other
children and a widow to deplore his loss.) Most of the officers also
perished; one of them, Mr. Thomas Jeane, a midshipman, who was under
the immediate care of Captain Pierce, after gaining the rock was swept
off by the waves. Swimming well he again reached it; but unable to
support the weakness which assailed him, and the beating of the storm,
he yielded his hold and perished in the sea.
AN ACCOUNT OF FOUR RUSSIAN SAILORS,
ABANDONED ON THE ISLAND OF EAST SPITZBERGEN.
In the year 1743, a merchant of Mesen, in Russia, fitted out a vessel
for the Greenland whale-fishery. She carried fourteen men, and was
destined for Spitzbergen. For eight successive days after their
sailing the wind was fair, but on the ninth it changed; so that
instead of getting to the coast of Spitzbergen, the usual rendezvous
of the Dutch ships, they were driven eastward, and after some days
elapsed they found themselves near an island, called by the Russians
Little Broun. Approaching within three versts, or two English miles of
this island, the vessel was suddenly surrounded by ice and the crew
were reduced to an extremely dangerous situation.
In this alarming state, a council was held when the mate, Alexis
Himkof, informed his comrades that some of the people of Mesen
formerly intended wintering on this island, and for that purpose had
carried timber hither, fit for building a hut, and actually erected
one at some distance from the shore.
The whole crew, therefore, concluded to winter there, if the hut, as
they hoped, still existed, because they were exposed to imminent
danger by remaining in the ship, and they would infallibly perish if
they did so. Four of the crew were on that account, dispatched in
search of it, or any other assistance they might meet with.
The names of these four were, Alexis Himkof, Iwan Himkof, Stephen
Scharapof and Feoder Weregin. Two miles of ice intervened between them
and the shore, which being loose and driven together by the wind,
rendered their approach difficult and dangerous. Providing themselves
with a musket, a powder-horn containing twelve charges of powder, with
as many balls, an axe, a kettle, about twenty pounds of flour, a
knife, a tinder-box, some tobacco and each his wooden pipe, they soon
arrived on the island.
Their first employment was exploring the country, when they discovered
the hut alluded to, about a mile and a half from the shore. It was
thirty-six feet long, eighteen broad and eighteen high; and consisted
of two chambers. Rejoicing greatly at their success, they passed the
night in it; though having been built a considerable time, it had
suffered much from the weather.
Next morning the four men hastened to the shore, impatient to
communicate their good fortune to their comrades; likewise designing
to get such stores, ammunition and necessaries from the vessel, as to
enable them to winter on the island. But the reader may conceive their
sorrow and astonishment, when on reaching the place where they had
landed nothing was to be seen but an open sea, instead of the ice
which only the day preceding had covered it. Doubtless a violent
storm, which arose during the night, had operated the change. It was
not known, however, whether the vessel had been beat to pieces by the
ice, or whether she had been carried by the current to the ocean; not
an uncommon event in Greenland. Whatever accident befel her, certain
it is they saw her no more; whence it is probable that she sunk, and
that all on board perished.
This unfortunate occurrence deprived them of the hope of ever being
able to quit the island, and full of horror and despair, they returned
to the hut. But their first attention was directed to the means of
providing subsistence, and repairing their habitation. The twelve
charges of powder procured them as many rein-deer, for the island,
fortunately for them abounded with these animals.
Though there were many crevices in the building, the wood of the hut
was still sound and unimpaired, therefore the deficiency was supplied
and done the more easily, because the lower class of Russians are
expert carpenters. Here they had plenty of moss to assist them.
The intense cold of the climate prevents the growth of vegetables, and
no species of tree or shrub is found on the islands of Spitzbergen.
The Russians, however, collected a quantity of wood on the shore,
which at first consisted of the wrecks of vessels, and afterwards of
whole trees with their roots, the produce of some more hospitable
climate, though unknown. Fortunately they found several bits of old
iron, some nails, five or six inches long, and an iron hook, on a few
wooden boards washed in by the sea. They likewise found the root of a
fir tree, bent and nearly fashioned into the shape of a bow.
By the help of a knife, a bow was soon formed but wanting a string and
arrows. Unable at present to procure either, they resolved to make
two lances to defend themselves against the white bears. The iron hook
was therefore fashioned into a hammer, by widening a hole which it
happened to have about the middle, with one of the largest nails. A
large pebble served for an anvil, and a couple of rein-deer horns
served for the tongs.
By means of such tools, two spear heads were made, which were tied
fast with thongs to sticks about the thickness of a man's arm. Thus
equipped, the Russians ventured to attack a white bear, and, after a
most dangerous encounter, succeeded in killing it. This was a new
supply of provisions; they relished the flesh exceedingly, and easily
divided the tendons into filaments, which, besides other uses, served
for strings to their bow.
[Illustration]
The Russians, in the next place, proceeded to forge some bits of iron
into smaller pieces, resembling the head of spears; and these were
fitted to arrows, by fastening them to fir rods.
They had thus a complete bow and arrows, and were more easily enabled
to obtain food.
With these, during their abode on the island, they killed no less than
two hundred and fifty rein-deer, and a great number of blue and white
foxes. They fed on the flesh of the animals and used their skins for
clothing. They killed only ten white bears during their residence, and
that at the utmost hazard, for these creatures are amazingly strong,
and defended themselves with surprising vigour and fury. The first was
attacked intentionally; the other nine were killed in self-defence,
for the animals even ventured to enter the outer room of the hut to
devour them. Some, less ferocious than others, were repulsed on the
first attempt, but a repetition of their attacks exposed the sailors
to the continual apprehension of being destroyed.
As they could not afford wood for a constant fire, they dried a
portion of their provision in the open air, and afterwards hung it up
in the hut, which was always full of smoke. Prepared in this way, they
used it for bread, because they were under the necessity of eating
their other flesh half raw.
Unfortunately, one of the Russians was attacked by the scurvy. Iwan
Himkof, who had wintered several times on the coast of West
Spitzbergen, advised his companions to swallow raw and frozen meat in
small pieces; to drink the blood of the rein-deer, as it flowed warm
from the veins of the animal, and to eat scurvy-grass, although it was
not very abundant. Those who followed his injunctions found an
effectual antidote, but Feoder Weregin, being naturally of an indolent
disposition, averse to drinking the rein-deer blood, and, unwilling to
leave the hut when he could possibly avoid it, was soon seized with
the scurvy. Under this afflicting distemper he passed nearly six
years, enduring the greatest sufferings. At length he became so weak
that he could not sit erect, nor even raise his hand to his mouth, so
that his humane companions were obliged to attend on, and feed him
like a new born infant, until the hour of his death.
In the course of their excursions through the island, the seamen had
met with a slimy loam, or kind of clay, of which they contrived to
make a lamp, and proposed to keep it constantly burning with the fat
of the animals they should kill.--Thus they filled it with rein-deer's
fat, and stuck a bit of twisted linen for a wick. But, to their
mortification, always as the fat melted, it not only was absorbed by
the clay, but fairly run through it on all sides. On this account they
formed another lamp, which they dried thoroughly in the air, and
heated red hot. It was next quenched in their kettle, wherein they had
boiled a quantity of flour down to the consistence of thin starch.
When filled with melted fat, they found to their great joy that it did
not leak. Encouraged by this attempt, they made another, that, at all
events, they might not be destitute of light, and saved the remainder
of their flour for similar purposes. Oakum thrown ashore, as also
cordage found among the wrecks of vessels, served for wicks; and when
these resources failed, they converted their shirts and drawers to the
same purpose. By such means they kept a lamp burning from soon after
their arrival on the island, until the day of their embarkation for
their native country.
Clothes, in so rigorous a climate, next became an object of necessity.
The uses to which they had applied what they had brought with them
exposed them still more to its severity. The skins of rein-deer and
foxes had hitherto served for bedding. It was essential to devise some
method of tanning them, the better to withstand the weather. This was
accomplished, in a certain degree, by soaking the skins in water until
the hair could be rubbed off, and then putting rein-deer fat upon
them. The leather, by such a process, became soft and pliant. The want
of awls and needles was supplied by bits of iron occasionally
collected; of them they made a kind of wire, which, being heated red
hot, was pierced with a knife, ground to a sharp point, which formed
the eye of a needle.--The sinews of bears and rein-deer, split into
threads, served for sewing the pieces of leather together, which
enabled the Russians to procure jackets and trowsers for summer dress,
and a long fur gown with a hood for their winter apparel.
The wants of these unfortunate persons being thus provided for, the
only reflections disturbing them were regret for those left behind at
home, or the apprehensions of some one of them surviving all his
companions, and then either famishing for want of food, or becoming a
prey to wild beasts. The mate, Alexis Himkof, had a wife and three
children, who were constantly in his mind, and he was unhappy from the
dread of never seeing them more.
Excepting white bears, foxes and rein-deer, with which the island
abounds, no other animals inhabit it. A few birds are seen in summer,
such as geese, ducks and other water-fowl. Whales seldom approach the
shore; but there are great numbers of seals; other fish are scarce,
and indeed their being in plenty would little avail the Russians, who
were unprovided with the means of taking them. Sometimes they found
the teeth and jaws of seals on the shore, but never an entire carcase;
for when these animals die on land, the white bears immediately eat
them. The common food of this ferocious creature, however, is the
flesh of dead whales, which are frequently seen floating about in the
polar regions, and are sometimes cast on shore. When this provision
fails, they fall upon seals, devouring them and other animals sleeping
on the beach.
The island had many mountains and steep rocks of stupendous height,
perpetually covered with snow and ice; not a tree nor even the poorest
shrub was to be met with; neither is there any vegetable but
scurvy-grass, although plenty of moss grows in every part. The
Russians found no river; however, there were many small rivulets
rising among the rocks and mountains, which afforded a quantity of
water.
They saw the sun moving for months together round the horizon during
summer, and in winter they were an equal length of time in total
darkness; but the Aurora Borealis, which was then frequent,
contributed to lessen the gloominess of so long a night. Thick cloudy
weather, great quantities of snow, and almost incessant rain at
certain seasons, often obscured the stars. The snow totally covered
the hut in winter, and left them no way of getting out of it,
excepting by a hole which they had made in the roof of one of the
chambers.
When the unfortunate mariners had passed nearly six years in this
dismal abode, Feoder Weregin, who had all along been in a languid
state, died, after suffering the most excruciating pains. Though his
companions were thus freed of the trouble of attending on him, and the
grief of witnessing his misery, they were deeply affected by his
death. They saw their number lessened, and each wished to be the next
to follow him. Having died in winter, a grave as deep as possible was
dug in the snow to receive his corpse, and the survivors then covered
it over to the best of their power, to prevent the white bears from
getting at it.
While the melancholy reflections excited by Weregin's death were still
fresh in the minds of his comrades, and while each expected to pay the
like duties to the companions of his misfortunes that they had done to
him, or to be himself the first to receive them, a Russian vessel
unexpectedly came in view on the 15th of August 1749.
This vessel belonged to a trader who had come to Archangel, and
intended to winter in Nova Zembla; but fortunately it was proposed to
him to winter at West Spitzbergen, to which, after many objections, he
assented. Contrary winds on the passage prevented the ship from
reaching the place of her destination, and drove her towards East
Spitzbergen, directly opposite to the residence of the mariners. As
soon as they perceived her, they hastened to light fires on the
nearest hills, and then ran to the beach waving a flag made of a
rein-deer's skin fastened to a pole. The people on board observing
these signals, concluded there were men ashore imploring their
assistance, and therefore came to an anchor near the island.
To describe the joy of the unfortunate mariners at seeing the moment
of their deliverance so near, is impossible.--They soon agreed with
the master of the vessel to take them and all their riches on board,
for which they should work during the voyage, and pay him eighty
rubles on arriving in Russia. Therefore they embarked, carrying with
them two thousand weight of rein-deer fat, many hides of the same
animals, the skins of the blue and white foxes and bears they had
killed. Neither did they neglect to carry away their spears, their
knife and axe, which were almost worn out, or their awls and needles,
which were carefully preserved in a box, very ingeniously made of
bone.