A Narrative of the Melancholy Wreck of the "Dunbar," Merchant Ship, on the South Head of Port Jackson, August 20th, 1875Anonymous
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A Narrative of the Melancholy Wreck of the "Dunbar," Merchant Ship, on the South Head of Port Jackson, August 20th, 1875
Anonymous
Dunbar (Ship); Shipwrecks -- Australia -- New South Wales
SIR--I have been all day down at the scene of the wreck of the DUNBAR,
and had a long interview with Johnson, the man who was saved. If the
statement he made to me, and which I carefully noted, be of any service
to you as information of a correct character for the public, who all
feel a deep interest in this melancholy event, I shall be glad that I
have taken this course to forward it. He stated that they were off
Botany at half-past eight o'clock p.m., Thursday; the captain then stood
off shore, on the starboard tack, ship with double-reefed fore and main
topsails; a very dirty dark, and rainy night, two men were placed at the
wheel; Captain Green instructed them to keep their luff; he (Captain
Green) had not been off the deck for two hours since they first made
land, some days previously; at half-past eleven p.m., the captain gave
orders to square away, which was done; the ship then ran under
close-reefed fore and main topsails and foresail. As they neared the
"light" the captain ordered the foresail to be clewed up, sent the
second mate to the foresail to keep a look-out, then very dark; told him
to "keep a good look-out for the North Head." The captain asked if he
could see the Head. The mate replied no, it was solid darkness. The
second mate suddenly called out "Breakers a-head." The captain ordered
the helm to be put hard to starboard to bring the ship round, then
blowing strong; ship on a dead lee shore, having such small sail upon
her, the ship would not come round, (this was about 12 o'clock), and the
sea lifting her in, she almost immediately struck; the passengers, who
had been in bed, rushed up on deck in their night dresses; their shrieks
were dreadful (Johnson describes the scene at this time the most
terrible part of the whole; the ladies asked the captain, and entreated
the seamen to know if there was any hope; the ship was still holding
together, and the men thought and said there was hope.) Almost
immediately after, as if in angry denial of that expression, the decks
burst up from the pressure of the water, the ship was rent into a
thousand pieces, and all on board (except him) were hurried into the
foaming terrific sea.
[Illustration: THE SAILOR RESCUED.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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