The Loss of His Majesty's Frigate Anson: Which was Wrecked within Three Miles of Helston, December 28, 1807 ... Also, an Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the Sidney, Which Ran upon a Dangerous Rock or Shoal, May 20, 1808Unknown
History
The Loss of His Majesty's Frigate Anson: Which was Wrecked within Three Miles of Helston, December 28, 1807 ... Also, an Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the Sidney, Which Ran upon a Dangerous Rock or Shoal, May 20, 1808
Unknown
Anson (Ship); Shipwrecks; Sidney (Ship)
“In attending to the above narrative, as simple as it is affecting, we
cannot help noticing the justice of Providence, so strikingly
exemplified in the melancholy fate of M’Kinnon, the deluder of these
unhappy men, and the victim of his own illegal and disgraceful scheme.
May his fate prove a memento to soldiers and sailors, and a useful
though awful lesson to the encouragers and abettors of desertion.”
* * * * *
The following is an account of another famine, given by Captain
Bradshaw, commander of the Andalusia, in a letter, dated Halifax, April
30, 1759.
On the 27th day of February, about two o’clock in the afternoon, we
saw a vessel without masts, about three miles to leeward of us; and
immediately bore down to see what she was: I found it to be the
Dolphin sloop, Captain Baron, from the Canaries, bound to New York;
they had been from the Canaries ever since September 11th, 165 days;
115 of which they had nothing to eat. I sent my boat on board to see
what condition they were in; my people called to me and told me they
were helpless and starving, and desired to know whether I would take
them on board.—I ordered my people to put them in the boat, and
bring them on board, which accordingly they did. When they came
alongside our ship we were obliged to haul them in with ropes, they
were so very weak: there were the captain and seven others; but such
poor miserable creatures sure never were seen: had it been a week
longer they must all have died. When I came to examine the captain
and the people, they told me, that they had not any provisions for
upwards of three months before they saw me; they had eaten their
dog, their cats, and all their shoes, and in short, every thing that
was eatable on board. On the 10th of January they all agreed to cast
lots for their lives, which accordingly they did; the shortest lot
was to die; the next shortest to be the executioner. The lot fell
upon Anthony Gallitia, a Spanish Gentleman, a passenger; they shot
him through the head, which they cut off and threw overboard; they
then took out his bowels and ate them, and afterwards ate all the
remaining part of the body, which lasted but a very short time. The
captain told me, they were about to cast lots a second time, but it
happened very luckily that he bethought himself of a pair of
breeches, which he had lined with leather; he soon found them, took
out the lining, and cut off for each man’s share a piece of about an
inch and a half square, for the day’s allowance; that, with the
grass that grew upon deck, was all the support they had for about
twenty days before I met with them: the grass was in some places
four or five inches high. The captain brought on board the remaining
part of the leather lining, which I have got, and a piece of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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