Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1.: With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During; The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43.; By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative; Of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.Stokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 1.: With an Account of the Coasts and Rivers Explored and Surveyed During; The Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in the Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43.; By Command of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative; Of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits to the Islands in the Arafura Sea.
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
At the time the vessel was wrecked, she had four boats, the longboat, two
cutters, and a dinghy or small jolly boat. In the largest cutter, W.
Grindall, Laurent Constantine, and George Pigot, left the wreck, and
Richard Quin, and James Wright, joined them the next morning by swimming
across a bar or reef at the risk of their lives.
The other boats were knocked to pieces and lost, by the vessel falling
over on her side, and they were unable to save any more of the passengers
or crew, as it was impossible to pull the boat up against the strong
current; and none of them would venture amidst the heavy breakers to
reach the boat by swimming. They were unable to state what became of the
Captain, passengers, and rest of the crew; but at the time Richard Quin
and James Wright left the wreck, all the passengers and crew were alive
on the forecastle of the vessel, with the exception of one sailor named
James Price, who was drowned by the smallest of the cutters swamping at
the time she was lowered.
The passengers on board at the time the vessel was wrecked, were Captain
D'Oyly of the Bengal Artillery, his wife, and two sons, George and
William; an English gentleman named Armstrong; and a Bengalese native
servant.
NAMES OF THE CREW.
The ship's crew consisted of twenty-four persons: J.G. Moore, master; J.
Clare, chief mate; W. Mayer, second mate; G. Pigott, third mate; J.
Grant, surgeon; L. Constantine, carpenter; W. Montgomery, steward; W.
Perry, J.P. Ching, midshipmen; R. Quin, A. Quail, W. Moore, C. Robinson,
J. Caen, W. Hill, J. Berry, R. Lounce, W. Jeffrey, J. Wright, W. Gumble,
J. Miller, and W. Williams, seamen; J. Ireland and J. Sexton, boys.
The five seamen in the cutter, not seeing any possibility of saving more
of the ship's company, and the next morning not perceiving a single
person on the wreck, concluded that these unhappy persons had been washed
off by the increasing swell of the sea during the night. On Sunday
morning, August 17th, they left the wreck, and steered as westerly a
course as possible by the sun and stars--they had no compass--in order to
reach the Dutch settlement of Coupang in the island of Timor. The whole
of their provisions consisted of 30 pounds of bread, one ham, and a keg
containing about four gallons of water; which had been placed in the boat
before she was lowered.
THE CUTTER REACHES TIMOR LAUT.
After driving about for fifteen days on the ocean, they descried land
which they took to be Timor; they went on shore and procured some water
and coconuts; but afterwards pursuing their course along the coast, they
were attacked by a number of native proas, and being warn out with
fatigue, and without any arms to defend themselves, they were forced to
surrender. The natives upset the boat, and stripped them of all their
clothes, after which they were brought on shore, where the natives at
first seemed inclined to kill them, but through the intercession of two
chiefs, named Pabok and Lomba, their lives were spared.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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