Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.Anonymous
History
Thrilling Narratives of Mutiny, Murder and Piracy: A weird series of tales of shipwreck and disaster, from the earliest part of the century to the present time, with accounts of providential escapes and heart-rending fatalities.
Anonymous
Mutiny; Pirates; Seafaring life; Shipwrecks
I was saved about ten o'clock on the morning of the 18th, with my
brother officers, the captain of the ship, and General Humbert. They
treated us with great humanity on board the cutter, giving us a little
weak brandy and water every five or six minutes, and after that a
bason of good soup. I fell on the locker in a kind of trance for near
thirty hours, and swelled to such a degree as to require medical aid
to restore my decayed faculties. Having lost all our baggage, we were
taken to Brest almost naked, where they gave us a rough shift of
clothes, and in consequence of our sufferings, and the help we
afforded in saving many lives, a cartel was fitted out by order of the
French Government to send us home, without ransom or exchange. We
arrived at Plymouth on the 7th of March following.
To that Providence, whose great workings I have experienced in this
most awful trial of human afflictions, be ever offered the tribute of
my praise and thanksgiving.
THE LOSS OF HIS MAJESTY'S SHIP, QUEEN CHARLOTTE.
The Queen Charlotte was, perhaps, one of the finest ships in the
British navy. She was launched in 1790, and her first cruise was with
the fleet fitted out against Spain, in consequence of the dispute
respecting Nootka Sound. Lord Howe, who was the commander and chief of
the fleet, was then on board of her; and she also bore his lordship's
flag on the first of June. After which she was sent to the
Mediterranean, and was the flag-ship of the commander in chief on that
station. In March, 1800, she was despatched by that nobleman to
reconnoitre the island of Cabrera, about thirty leagues from Leghorn,
then in the possession of the French, and which it was his lordship's
intention to attack. On the morning of the 17th the ship was
discovered to be on fire, at the distance of three or four leagues
from Leghorn. Every assistance was promptly forwarded from the shore,
but a number of boats, it appears, were deterred from approaching the
wreck, in consequence of the guns, which were shotted, and which, when
heated by the fire, discharged their contents in every direction.
The only consolation that presents itself under the pressure of so
calamitous a disaster is, that it was not the effect either of
treachery or wilful neglect, as will appear by the following official
statement of the carpenter:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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