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padding-left: 2em;} + +.transnote { + border: .3em double gray; + font-family: sans-serif, serif; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 5%; + margin-top: 4em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + padding: 1em; +} +.x-ebookmaker .transnote { + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; + margin-left: 2%; + margin-right: 2%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + padding: .5em; +} + +.gesperrt { + letter-spacing: 0.2em; + margin-right: -0.2em; +} +.wspace {word-spacing: .3em;} + +span.locked {white-space:nowrap;} +.pagenum br {display: none; visibility: hidden;} +div.narrow {max-width: 25em; margin: auto;} +sup {vertical-align: 30%;} + + /* ]]> */ </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75381 ***</div> + +<div class="transnote section"> +<p class="center larger">Transcriber’s Note</p> + +<p>Larger versions of most illustrations may be seen by right-clicking them +and selecting an option to view them separately, or by double-tapping and/or +stretching them.</p> + +<p><a href="#Transcribers_Notes">Additional notes</a> will be found near the end of this ebook.</p> +<div> </div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter section"> +<figure id="coversmall" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 20em;"> + <img src="images/coversmall.jpg" width="591" height="923" alt=""> +</figure> +<div> </div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter section"> +<figure id="i_1" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 24em;"> + <img src="images/i_001.jpg" width="1476" height="2057" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption">THE LAST OF THE “LONDON.”</figcaption> +</figure> +<div> </div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter section center vspace wspace"> +<h1><span class="gesperrt">WRECK</span><br> +<span class="xxsmall">OF</span><br> +<span class="gesperrt">THE “LONDON.”</span></h1> + +<figure id="i_2" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 12em;"> + <img src="images/i_002.jpg" width="753" height="816" alt=""> +</figure> + +<p class="p2"><i>Second Edition—Revised.</i></p> + +<p class="p2 larger"><span class="gesperrt">LONDON:</span><br> +S. W. PARTRIDGE, 9, PATERNOSTER ROW. +</p> +<div> </div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +</div> + +<div class="chapter section vspace p4 narrow"> +<p>The Publisher will be glad to receive any additional +information from those who had friends or relatives on +board.</p> +<div> </div> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">v</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</h2> +</div> + +<table id="toc"> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Introductory</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><span class="allsmcap">P. <a href="#toclink_1">1</a></span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Iron Beauty</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_5">5</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Captain Martin.</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_12">12</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Rev. Daniel James Draper</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_21">21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The List of Passengers</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_36">36</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Three Days and Nights of Danger on the Deep</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_48">48</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Last Struggles</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_57">57</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Anchor within the Veil</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_63">63</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">vi</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Last Words</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_71">71</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Light behind the Cloud</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_84">84</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Escape</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_90">90</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Things remembered in the Storm</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#toclink_97">97</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class="tdc chap">APPENDIX</td> + <td class="tdr tbpad"><a href="#toclink_101">101</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<figure id="i_6" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 13em;"> + <img src="images/i_006.jpg" width="809" height="761" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">1</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="WRECK_OF_THE_LONDON"><span id="toclink_1"></span><span class="larger">WRECK OF THE “LONDON.”</span></h2> + +<hr class="narrow"> + +<h2 class="nobreak p1" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br> + +<span class="subhead">INTRODUCTORY.</span></h2> +</div> + +<figure id="i_7" class="figleft" style="max-width: 19em;"> + <img src="images/i_007.jpg" width="1164" height="1577" alt=""> +</figure> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> opening of the year +1866 will long be memorable +for that dismal series +of disasters at sea, which +it ushered in with a frequency +and fatality that +were truly appalling. +The New Year was +scarcely fourteen days +old when, from every +part of the +coast, from +north to +south, from +east to west, +the telegraph +flashed the +melancholy +tidings of +ruin and havoc +among +the shipping. +We heard of ships being dismantled by the storm, and +obliged to put back to port; of others being beaten to pieces,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">2</span> +while their crews, escaping by the lifeboats, performed such +acts of heroism that the seaman’s name was covered with fresh +renown. Since the year 1859 never had such tempests +raged, and such deeds of gallantry been performed.</p> + +<p>But disaster seemed indeed to crown disaster, when it was +rumoured that the <i>London</i>—one of Messrs. Wigram’s finest +vessels, laden with a valuable cargo, and having, it was first +said, more than 300 souls on board—had foundered in the +Bay of Biscay, and that not a soul had escaped. At first, +many positively refused to credit the intelligence that the +noble vessel, which had only a few days left our shores, had +succumbed to the fury of the gale, and gone down a wreck. +It seemed impossible. Relatives and friends were loth to +receive the terrible truth that they had taken a last farewell +of many, the grasp of whose hand they still felt warm +within their own, and whose last words of love and friendship +were still ringing in their ears. All were slow to admit +that there was no hope, and there was a general clinging to +the expectation that there had been some mistake. The <i>London</i> +might, perhaps, have been injured by the tempest, and compelled +to put back to port; but that she could have foundered, +or even if this calamity had occurred, that her crew and +passengers had been unable to effect their escape—this indeed +seemed almost beyond belief!</p> + +<p>Too soon, however, the newspapers brought the sad and +affecting story before the eyes of all, and never did story of +shipwreck, however thrilling, excite a grief more sincere and +wide-spread. It needed no artistic craft to make the story +tell, and to take it straight home to the hearts of unnumbered +thousands. “This awful wreck,” said Mr. O’Dowd in commencing +the inquiry directed by the Board of Trade, “has +been the theme of many a pen, and the topic of many a conversation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">3</span> +since its occurrence has been made known. +Though the sympathies of our hearts ought to recognise no +grades of social position, nor any distinction of education and +intellect, we yet must feel the pang embittered by the loss of +some of the passengers, with whose names, accomplishments, +and virtues the public are now painfully familiar.”</p> + +<p>As, day by day, the harrowing details became more accurate +and complete, the regret became more and more poignant, +and almost assumed a national character. Men soon thought +little of the ship, magnificent though she was, or of the cargo, +valuable as that was; both ship and cargo became insignificant +in the presence of the vast sacrifice of human life by +which the wreck of the <i>London</i> had been accompanied. And +then came tales of heroism and self-denial, of a lofty courage and +sweet resignation on the part of her passengers, officers, and +crew, that made it harder still to realize that the men and +women who had been capable of such noble behaviour had been +buried beneath the foaming waves, and that the world now +was all the poorer and more desolate, for their absence from +it. Both the pulpit and the press gave touching and eloquent +expression to the grief which prevailed on every side; and +while the mourning relatives of our own land received every +mark of sympathy and consideration, those belonging to the +colonies, and on whom the news will burst like a terrible +thunderbolt, were not forgotten, either in the earnest prayers +that were offered on behalf of the bereaved ones, or in the +words of genuine kindness and commiseration which the +knowledge of their heavy loss elicited.</p> + +<p>It has been thought that there is much belonging to the +Wreck of the <i>London</i> which entitles it to a more convenient +place of record than the newspaper, and that many, both in +England and Australia, will be glad to possess a simple, connected<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">4</span> +narrative of the ship’s doings, and especially of her +passengers’ behaviour from the day they left our shores until +the day of their foundering in the Bay of Biscay.</p> + +<p>There can be no question that the heroism and piety displayed +on the occasion, demand a most distinguished place in +the annals of the brave and good. Unhappily, shipwrecks of +the most disastrous character are of only too frequent occurrence; +but it is seldom that a Message from the Sea has borne +the character of that mysterious and sublime one which the +sinking <i>London</i> wrote ere she went down. Many, too, will +perhaps be glad to possess portraits of those whose names will +now be historical for their behaviour amid the distressing +circumstances in which they were placed.</p> + +<p>It is also in the sincere hope of administering some balm of +consolation, however slight, to the hearts of thousands mourning +in our own country and elsewhere, that we would now, +avoiding, as far as possible, technical terms and details, invite +the reader’s attention to the narrative of the Wreck of the +<i>London</i>, first of all, however, looking at the ship herself, her +Captain, and her list of passengers.</p> + +<figure id="i_10" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 13em;"> + <img src="images/i_010.jpg" width="805" height="775" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II"><span id="toclink_5"></span>CHAPTER II.<br> + +<span class="subhead">THE IRON BEAUTY.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> <i>London</i> was the property of Messrs. Money Wigram & Co., +the eminent shipbrokers at Blackwall, to the extent of fifty-six +shares, Messrs. Franklin and Charles Morgan being owners +of two shares each, and Captain Martin, her Master, of four. +She was a screw steam-ship, and was built at Blackwall in +1864; she was therefore a new vessel. She had two decks, +three masts, was ship-rigged, and clincher-built. She was +1752 tons register, and her engines, by Messrs. Humphreys +and Tennant of Deptford, were constructed on the most +improved modern principles: they were 200 horse power. +Her length, from the fore part of the stem, under the bowsprit, +to the aft side of the head of the stern post, was about 276 ft., +and her main breadth to outside of plank was about 35 ft.; +her depth in hold, from tonnage deck to ceiling at midships, +was 24 feet.</p> + +<p>The materials used in the construction of the vessel were +all of the best quality, and the best workmanship was used. +The materials were an angle iron frame, iron beams, stringer +plates and kelsons. She was double rivetted from keel to +gunwale, and all her fastenings were sound and good. Her +masts were iron, with the exception of her topmasts, which +were of wood. Those who superintended the progress of her +building from the laying of her keel until the day of launching, +have spoken in terms of the most unqualified approbation of +her entire construction; and those who officially examined +her before she put to sea, reported her in the best trim, and +having all the equipments necessary for the voyage. Sails,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span> +compasses, boats, anchors, rockets, signal guns, life buoys, in +short, all that she was required to carry to be officially +pronounced seaworthy, the <i>London</i> did carry; and, previous +to her last voyage, after undergoing a series of examinations, +she was said to be as fine a vessel as ever left the Port of +London, and she presented to the eyes of her admirers a +perfect picture of combined elegance and strength. She was +built according to Lloyd’s rules and regulations, and was indeed +of greater strength than Lloyd’s rules required.</p> + +<p>On account of the melancholy disaster connected with +them, the reader’s attention must briefly be directed to the +engine-room of the vessel, and the hatchway over it. The +engine-room was 36 ft. in length, and on either side of it, fore +and aft, were bulkheads, to one of which there was a communication +from the engine-room. Over the engine-room +went the hatchway, the dimensions of which were about 12 ft. +by 9 ft. The hatchway was a saddle skylight in a wooden +frame, having plate glass half an inch thick, and covered +with gratings of galvanized iron. According to the judgment +of those who surveyed the ship, the engine hatch was deemed +of sufficient strength to meet any weather.</p> + +<p>Such, then, was the vessel, which was no sooner advertised +for her third voyage, than all her berths were taken, and a +valuable cargo got on board. The accommodation for fore-cabin +passengers was on the main deck before the main +hatchway. In this part of the ship there was space for 130 in +hammocks and 128 in berths, thus providing accommodation +for 258 persons. The accommodation for after-cabin passengers +amounted to 132 berths and space for 10 hammocks; +thus taking 142 passengers. Altogether the ship would carry +400 persons. From the shipping bills of the <i>London</i> we find +that her cargo consisted of about 347 tons of dead weight, viz.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span> +iron plates and bars, sheet iron, lead and shot, stone, blocks, +iron nails, and screws, &c.; there were also 14 tons of hardware +and agricultural implements, all of which would not be +probably considered dead weight. The remaining portion of +the ship’s cargo, amounting to about 1000 tons, consisted of +light goods, packages of haberdashery, blankets, woollens, +china, glass ware, drugs—in short, just such a cargo as was +generally exported to Australia: this was stowed over the +dead weight, and in the after part of the ship. The cargo of +bar and sheet iron was stowed from the after part of the main +hatchway to the after part of the fore hatchway. The value +of the cargo was estimated at 124,785<i>l.</i> 17<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i></p> + +<p>The weight of the cargo was, of course, increased by the +coals which the <i>London</i> carried. The quantity of coals +supplied to the vessel was as follows:—remaining on board +from the previous voyage, 45 tons; shipped in London, 460 +tons; making in all 505 tons. Of this there was expended on +the voyage to Plymouth 47 tons, leaving 458 tons. There +was shipped at Plymouth 50 tons; so that the weight of engine +coals in the ship when she left Plymouth was 508 tons. +Several tons, however, were on deck, stowed in sacks round +the steam-chest and engine-room hatch, and, during the storm +that broke over the vessel, the coals were thrown out of their +sacks, and at every lurch of the ship they were either washed +overboard, or sent rolling in knubs near the scuppers.</p> + +<p>The master and officers of the ship were as follows:—John +Bohun Martin, Master; Robert Harris, first mate; Arthur +William Ticehurst, second mate; Arthur C. Angell, third +mate; John Jones, first engineer; John Greenhill, second engineer. +The Master, officers, and crew were in number 83, +and there were 15 foreigners among the seamen. The +foreigners were all rated as able seamen, and amongst them<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span> +were 3 Germans, 5 Swedes, 2 Russians, 2 Danes, 1 Hollander, +and 1 Bavarian. It does not appear that any of the foreigners +had sailed in the <i>London</i> before, but eleven out of the number +had previously sailed on board of British ships.</p> + +<p>The number of passengers that went on board in London was +125, and these were increased to 180 by the embarkation of 55 +at Plymouth. That the <i>London</i> stood very high in the estimation +of all sea-goers, and that her seaworthiness was above the +faintest suspicion, is evident from the number of those who +tried to secure a passage out in her, but without success, and +from the reports and declarations which all those who were +officially responsible for her good trim made respecting her. +After a certain time there was not a berth in her to be obtained +on any terms, though many were disappointed at not +being allowed to obtain them: there was not a word of dissatisfaction, +however slight, expressed by any official after +the strictest examination had been made. Captain M<sup>c</sup>Lean, +the Emigration Officer, who acts under the authority of the +Emigration Commissioners, had, after careful survey and inspection, +certified the <i>London</i> to be in safe trim, and in all +respects fit for her intended voyage to Melbourne. His words +were, “I consider her perfect in every way.”</p> + +<p>It would have been unnecessary to have appeared even to +insist upon the good trim and seaworthiness of the <i>London</i>, had +not the suspicion gained ground that much more might have +been done for the passengers’ safety than actually was done. +Some have thought that more boats ought to have been on +board; but it should be borne in mind that she carried one +more than was actually required by law, and that no ship +carries a sufficient number of boats to contain all on board, +unless the number of passengers happens to be very slight.</p> + +<p>With reference to the length, breadth, and depth of the ship,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span> +a suggestion has been thrown out as to her narrowness of +beam for a vessel of such length; but this alleged disproportion +was not peculiar to the <i>London</i>: it exists in a much +greater degree in some of the finest ships afloat. The length, +for example, of Her Majesty’s transport ship <i>Himalaya</i> is +340 ft., while her breadth is only 44 ft. 7 in. The same +might be noticed in the case of other steam-ships.</p> + +<p>We have no doubt that eventually, out of the terrible calamity +that all must truly deplore, greater safety will accrue +to the thousands who sail the seas, through greater care being +taken of every means that concerns such safety, and that immediately +some plan will be devised for securing the engine-room +of steam-ships against inundation.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the matter will not be mended by any unfair +criticism of the ship’s sea-going qualities. It will only increase +unavailing regrets, to array what might have been +against what actually is. It is a fact, patent to all, that the +<i>London</i> enjoyed a first-rate reputation as a fast ship, as a most +comfortable one, and as having in her commander, Captain +John Bohun Martin, a gentleman of the highest repute, both +for his seamanship and many other admirable qualities.</p> + +<p>All being in readiness, the <i>London</i> left the East-India Docks +on the 29th of December 1865, laden as we have described, +and bound for Melbourne. Many were those who caught a +view of her from various points as she steamed majestically +down the river, and fervently wished her a prosperous voyage +as they remembered that she contained on board something far +more precious than all her cargo, rich though it was.</p> + +<p>At Gravesend she embarked several passengers, and lunch +was prepared on board, that those who were about to separate, +they knew not for how long, might enjoy as much of +each other’s society as possible. It was a pleasant party,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span> +notwithstanding the tears that started involuntarily from +many eyes as the hour of separation drew near. One affecting +incident deserves to be recorded. A gentleman was obliged +to send his little boy out, and remain behind himself. The +child was to have gone by a former ship, but he had prevailed +upon his father to allow him to wait for him; and now, +after all, that dear father could not go until the next ship, and +the little one was going out under the care of a friend. The +father of the child was present, and watched the vessel until +she seemed to die away in the glory of the setting sun.</p> + +<p>Innumerable, doubtless, now are the kind words and looks +which are recalled by mourning friends as so many fond +souvenirs of that last parting at Gravesend or at Plymouth. +The sun was going down, and tinging with lustre the Kentish +hills, wintry though the weather was, when the <i>London</i> left +Gravesend behind, and went on her way to Plymouth. This +very night, however, she encountered weather that compelled +her to bring up at the Nore, where she anchored and remained +during the whole of Sunday.</p> + +<p>On Monday morning, the 1st of January, at daybreak, +the anchor was weighed, and the ship steamed down the +channel, still against a head wind, but making fair way. +While passing outside the Isle of Wight the wind increased to +half a gale, and Captain Martin deemed it prudent to put back +and lay-to for the night in St. Helen’s Road. On Tuesday +morning, the 2nd, the <i>London</i> proceeded through the Needles +into the open channel, the wind being still ahead, but light. +On the Wednesday the weather became so boisterous, and +the indications of the barometer so threatening, that, at +about 2 o’clock <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>, the Trinity House pilot, under whose +care she was, decided on taking her to Spithead for +shelter. She anchored on the Motherbank at 4 <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span>, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span> +lay there until daylight of the 4th, when she steamed out +through the Needles passage, the wind being then southwesterly.</p> + +<p>She arrived off Plymouth at daylight of the 5th. A sad +accident occurred here. A pilot cutter put off a small boat, +having on board the pilot and his assistant, to bring the <i>London</i> +inside the breakwater. When the boat was no more than a +hundred yards from the <i>London</i> a sea capsized her, and both +the pilot and his assistant were thrown into the water. Captain +Martin instantly ordered one of his lifeboats to be +lowered, and with great difficulty the assistant pilot was rescued, +but the pilot was drowned. About two hours after daylight +of the 5th the <i>London</i> was anchored inside the breakwater, +and prepared at once to embark her passengers. Some of +those passengers must now engage our attention for a little +while.</p> + +<figure id="i_17" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 13em;"> + <img src="images/i_017.jpg" width="801" height="810" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III"><span id="toclink_12"></span>CHAPTER III.<br> + +<span class="subhead">CAPTAIN MARTIN.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">It</span> will be long before Britons will hear the name of John +Bohun Martin without tears, as they think of his noble +heroism amid circumstances sufficiently appalling to rob the +bravest of his self-possession; of his disregard for his own +personal safety while duty commanded him to remain at +a post of imminent danger; of his resolute perseverance in +doing all that the most skilful seaman could, to ride out the +furious gale. He was not new to the sea, for from his boyhood +he had been accustomed to cope with its storms and +dangers, and had not risen to the post of Master without passing +through years of the most careful training and discipline. +He was born at Brompton, April 27th, 1819. When yet +young, having a love for the sea, he was entered as midshipman +in the East India ship <i>True Briton</i>, and made several +voyages to Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. He remained in +this ship four years, and during this time he diligently studied +navigation, particularly in its scientific branches. In 1840, +he was appointed third officer of the <i>Southampton</i>, a vessel +trading to the East Indies, and having in those days some +celebrity as a fast-sailing ship. He passed through twelve +additional years of service before he was entrusted with +the command of a vessel, but all who knew him spoke +very highly of his diligence and general character. He +enjoyed the esteem and friendship of the Captains under +whom he served: among them were the well-known names +of Beach, and Wimble, and Nash.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span></p> + +<figure id="i_19" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 24em;"> + <img src="images/i_019.jpg" width="1515" height="2308" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption">J. B. Martin</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span></p> + +<p>In the year 1852 he was appointed to the command of the +<i>Essex</i>, and continued her Master four years; at the end of +which period he took the command of the <i>Suffolk</i>. There is no +doubt that he owed this appointment entirely to his own +merits as a navigator, and to the confidence which his general +character inspired. The post which the Captain of the <i>Suffolk</i> +was expected creditably to fill, was in every way an honourable, +but, at the same time, a most responsible one. The ship +was one of Messrs. Wigram’s best and fastest-sailing clippers, +and was expressly designed for the Australian trade. In 1856 +the gold-digging mania in Australia was attracting great +numbers of people from our shores, and there was a sharp +competition amongst ship-owners, both for passengers and +cargo. Fast vessels were much in demand, for, to the travellers +athirst for gold, a single day was deemed of the greatest +importance; and safe ships were of course sought after, +because of the precious cargo entrusted to their keeping.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, during that period a number of fine vessels +were built and launched, and their owners were accustomed to +start them at the same time and for the same destination. The +<i>Suffolk</i>, however, could successfully compare with any +vessel of her class, as she had been expressly built for the +Australian trade, and, regardless of cost, had been fitted by +her wealthy owners with all the equipments necessary to +render her one of the fastest and, at the same time, safest +ships afloat.</p> + +<p>From a host of able and experienced navigators, who +would have counted it an honour to have assumed the command, +Messrs. Wigram selected John Bohun Martin to +be Captain of the <i>Suffolk</i>, and never did owners make a +better choice. Many are still living who crossed the seas +with him during those days of well-nigh angry competition,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span> +and who will recall with pleasure his practised skill, +his genial, open disposition, his gentlemanly bearing, and +his studious care for the comfort of his passengers in all +the little details which have so much to do with the making or +marring of the pleasure of a long voyage. He was one of +the kindliest and most simple-hearted of men, pleased with +very simple things, delighting in riddles in which a very child +would have seen no mystery, and with all a sailor’s superstition +about him; fond of cats, and a great partiality for +absolutely doing nothing at all when he was not on board. +With his attached relatives in Highbury Park he would always +spend his time when ashore, and go about with them here +and there; but he was perhaps never happier than when he +could throw himself back in the large easy chair, and read the +advertisements of the <i>Times</i> and the advertisement especially of +his own ship. Not tall, and not short, and every inch the gentleman; +with a fresh-coloured face, light hair and blue eyes, and +ambling motion, as if in any place he wanted sea-room and +must have it; with a fine cheery voice, and a laugh of sterling +quality; with a woman’s heart of tenderness within the strength +that seemed equal to any danger—as such, John Bohun Martin +will long be remembered.</p> + +<p>One who knew him well, and who could not speak of his loss +without deep emotion, told the writer of many little acts of +attention, which, although too trivial to appear in print, are +not without importance when measured by the comfort they +imparted, and by the void which their absence would have +created. His heart was truly in his profession, and he had +all the genuine sailor’s enthusiasm, and, we might almost say, +affection, for his ship, of whose equipments, beauty, and good +qualities he spoke with glowing pride. As he was never +married, some used laughingly to say that the Captain had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span> +no bride but his ship; and certainly he had reason to be +proud of the <i>Suffolk</i> during the eight years she was under his +command.</p> + +<p>Her first trip to Australia was performed with unusual +rapidity. It is true that, on this passage, she encountered +very heavy weather: a violent hurricane carried away her +topmasts, and for a short time crippled her; but the +damage was quickly repaired at sea, and notwithstanding +this mishap, the <i>Suffolk</i> arrived in Australia in an unusually +short time, and could bear to be favourably compared +with some of the finest vessels afloat, which had started +at the same time. Captain Martin had displayed such +skill, and had shewn such energy in circumstances that were +fraught with much danger both to passengers and cargo, that, +upon his return to England, the mercantile portion of the city +of London presented him with a handsome testimonial as a +mark of their esteem. A sum of more than £500 was presented +to him.</p> + +<p>An interesting story stands connected with the first +voyage of the <i>Suffolk</i>. While she was in a dismantled +condition, and her crew were repairing damages, an +American vessel, also bound from London for Melbourne, +spoke the <i>Suffolk</i>, and offered assistance. Captain Martin +courteously declined, whereupon the American Captain +said he would report the <i>Suffolk</i> on his arrival at Melbourne. +Captain Martin replied, that he had better take care +the <i>Suffolk</i> did not report <em>him</em>. The vessel proved that Captain +Martin’s confidence in his ship, and in his own seamanship, +was not ill-founded. The American Captain reached +Melbourne after what he considered a rapid passage, and +the day after his arrival called on the agents of the <i>Suffolk</i> +and reported having fell in with her. They thanked him, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span> +asked would he like to see Captain Martin, who was in the +next room. The American Captain was much surprised to find +that the <i>Suffolk</i> had arrived five days before and reported +him.</p> + +<p>The <i>Suffolk</i> now commenced a career of success which +enabled her, under the direction of her able commander, +to take rank before all other ships in the same trade. +She made, during eight years he commanded her, ten voyages +to Australia and back; nor did she meet with any +mishap or casualty of any kind, save that to which we have +referred on her first trip. During these years Captain Martin +not only enjoyed the high esteem and friendship of her owners, +but also of men high in position both in England and +Australia. It will be hard to say, perhaps, in which country +his loss will be the more deeply felt; for, both at home +and abroad, he numbered a multitude of attached and admiring +friends. He was a man pre-eminently fitted, it seems, +to infuse what was loving and kindly in others: not only +among passengers, but among those who were under his command, +he is described as being one of the most trueminded +and unselfish of men. Mr. Greenhill, the second engineer +of the <i>London</i>, and one of the survivors, a man who, without +a tear, had faced all the horrors of the wreck, and all the +dangers of the raging sea for twenty-four hours, in an open +boat, fairly broke down, and sobbed like a child, as the +thought of his last interview with the gallant Captain presented +itself to his mind.</p> + +<p>Many of the passengers with him on former voyages can +recall, not only his gentlemanly tastes, but the extreme +simplicity of his habits. While he kept one of the best and +most hospitable of tables for those on board his ship, his own +wants were of the most moderate description. On last<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span> +Christmas-day his moderation at the table of his relatives +called even for remark: he touched neither wine nor spirits +throughout the feast; indeed, generally speaking he was a man +of the most abstemious habits, and never touched spirits. +The writer has heard from one most likely best to know, +that only once in his life did he taste a small quantity of +spirits, but the alcohol had such an effect upon him, that he +never repeated the experiment.</p> + +<p>Who can tell what influence the fact of their captain’s abstemiousness, +and his taking nothing stronger than coffee during +those dreadful days and nights of suspense—who can tell the influence +that such an example may have exerted upon the minds +of the crew? There have been many painful instances of sailors, +when it has been made known to them that there is no hope, +rushing to the spirit and wine stores, and meeting death at +last in a state of intoxication; but on board the <i>London</i> there +was nothing approaching to this. On the contrary, there was +the strictest sobriety among the crew and passengers, and +we cannot help believing that Captain Martin’s example had +much to do with it.</p> + +<p>Such is a brief sketch of the man whose name will, for many +years, henceforth be a household word for all that was enduring +and brave amid the most distracting perils, and for all that +was gentle and endearing among his relatives and friends.</p> + +<p>He had served a tolerably long apprenticeship to the sea—his +last voyage was his thirteenth to Melbourne as commander—and +his reputation as Master of the <i>Suffolk</i> had been so brilliant, that +in the forty-seventh year of his age, and at the end of 1864, +he was appointed Captain of the <i>London</i>, a vessel on which +still greater care and cost had been expended than on the +<i>Suffolk</i>, which he had so successfully navigated for upwards +of eight years. The <i>London</i> was built in pursuance of the plan<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span> +for steaming to Australia round the Southern Cape. She +made two very rapid voyages to Australia and back, and +fully justified all the cost and care expended upon her construction. +Her value, exclusive of cargo, was estimated at +about 80,000<i>l.</i> Captain Martin’s share in her may have been +about 5000<i>l.</i></p> + +<p>The <i>London</i> was therefore on her third voyage, and, +commanded by a Captain whose good fortune had become +almost proverbial, and belonging to a firm who, in their time, +had never lost a ship, she set sail upon the voyage which was +so soon terribly interrupted. But while she is yet in sight of +Plymouth, we must call the reader’s attention to one passenger +who has gone on board, whose name will live as long as there +are hearts to feel what is life-giving in the gospel, what is +majestic in faith, and what is sustaining in death. We need +scarcely say that we allude to the Rev. D. J. Draper.</p> + +<figure id="i_26" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 13em;"> + <img src="images/i_026.jpg" width="779" height="633" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV"><span id="toclink_21"></span>CHAPTER IV.<br> + +<span class="subhead">REV. DANIEL JAMES DRAPER.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Daniel James Draper</span>, a name that will henceforth be as +honourably and widely known in England as it was previously +in Australia, was born at Wickham, near Fareham in Hampshire, +on August 28th, 1810. He was of respectable parentage, +his father being the chief carpenter and builder in the +village. Although unacquainted with the saving knowledge +of the gospel, his parents were strictly moral in their lives, +and regular attendants upon the services of the parish church; +consequently the influences which surrounded the child’s +opening years were favourable to the formation and growth +of virtuous habits.</p> + +<p>He was brought, however, to religious decision by coming +in contact with some devoted Wesleyans in the neighbouring +village of Fareham. They had a chapel in the village, and +in it the gospel was fervently and faithfully preached; and +we doubt not the building—for it still exists—will henceforth +be memorable on account of its being the place in +which Daniel James Draper first saw the necessity of repentance +towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus +Christ.</p> + +<p>By the door of this chapel young Daniel was occasionally +found listening, and taking in stray words of warning and +of wisdom, as John Bunyan did before him from the lips of +the pious women of Elstow, who talked of holy things as they +spun and knitted in the sunlight before their cottage doors. +Daniel would not enter, but again and again the lad was seen +listening at the chapel-doors, and marvelling perhaps, like the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span> +tinker of Bedford, at what he heard. On one occasion he +received a sharp rebuke for neither coming in nor going +away, but only standing without, and the reproof so wounded +him that he resolved never to go near the place again.</p> + +<p>But to this resolution he did not keep; and ere long, in this +chapel, the truth of God was applied to his youthful heart, and +he felt very deeply the need of salvation. Outwardly in +his life, hitherto, there had been nothing worthy of blame; his +conduct had been strictly upright and moral; but now his +conscience revealed to him depths of depravity and guilt, of +whose very existence he had been unconscious, and he saw the +urgent necessity of receiving pardon, and of becoming a partaker +of the new birth. By repentance and faith he immediately +sought reconciliation with God, and it was not long +before he became a rejoicing believer in the Divine love and +favour.</p> + +<p>Very naturally, he now openly connected himself with those +from whom he had received so much spiritual benefit, and +he became an enrolled member of the Wesleyan Society. +He had not reached twenty years of age, when, although +still beneath the roof of his kind, church-going father, he +took this decisive step. His resolution to connect himself with +the Methodists was not favourably received by his father, +or by the members of his family generally, but young Daniel +held on his way; yet, as he did this with all the good nature +that was so marked a characteristic of his maturer years, there +is reason to believe that his youthful profession did not expose +him to any opposition that pressed heavily upon the buoyancy +of his spirits. He even in these early days became well +known for the zeal and interest he displayed in the salvation +of the lost and perishing.</p> + +<figure id="i_29" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 26em;"> + <img src="images/i_029.jpg" width="1625" height="2361" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption">D. J. Draper</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>Ere long the Methodists determined to erect a chapel in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span> +village of Wickham, where he lived, and it is interesting to remember +now, that it was built by Daniel and his father, and +that, in the course of a short time, the son had the opportunity, +in that very chapel, of proclaiming to his father the unsearchable +riches of Christ’s gospel. He was about twenty years of +age when he enjoyed this privilege, his gifts and character +having placed him amongst the Wesleyan local preachers. +Although it was still distasteful to some members of his +family, he eventually decided upon devoting himself to the +work of the ministry, and never was a decision, we believe, +more in harmony with the Divine will and more signally +honoured by blessed results.</p> + +<p>When about twenty-two years of age the young preacher +removed to Brecon, with its towering beacons, pleasant +streams, and still pleasanter societies of Christian people. Mr. +Draper is still remembered there with affection, and many can +call to mind his devotedness to Christ’s service, his love for +the house of God, his familiarity with the Scriptures, and his +attachment to the prayer-meeting. A favourite hymn with +him in those days was the one in which this verse occurs:</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Happy, if with my latest breath</div> + <div class="verse indent2">I may but gasp his name,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Preach Him to all, and cry in death,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Behold, behold the Lamb!”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>At Brecon he worked hard, both in the culture of his own +mind as well as in the service of his Divine Master. He read +good and solid books, and through his life long the substantial +was always more attractive to him than the glittering and +merely artistic; he had no relish for a literature that did not +help him in his work, and all he acquired in study he gave out in +effort for the good of those amongst whom he lived.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span></p> + +<p>One can readily imagine his happy earnest life during those +Brecon days, of dangerous mountain journeys to the stations +where he preached; of open-air preaching by the river-side; +of the welcome which the warm-hearted Welsh people gave +everywhere to the young preacher, we can have no doubt. It +was during this time that his sister, still living at Brecon, received +the truth in Christ, through her brother’s instrumentality. +He was destined, however, for a larger sphere of +usefulness than any which his own land could furnish, wide +and urgent as its claims were and are.</p> + +<p>While he was at Brecon, his character and gifts had so +generally impressed several ministers and friends of his fitness +for the regular ministry, that he was recommended to the +Wesleyan Conference as a minister; and in 1834 he was +appointed to the Chatteris Circuit, in Cambridgeshire, and here +the same energy and zeal characterized his efforts.</p> + +<p>At this time, the attention of various Missionary Societies was +being directed to the spiritual wants of those who were settling +in the colonies. Emigration was becoming more and more +popular, and every week multitudes were leaving our shores +in search of the fabulous fortunes which the colonies held +up temptingly to their view. Gold, it was hinted, would one +day be found in any quantities by men who would only have +to dig for it; riches incalculable might be obtained in +an incredibly short space of time. The directors of +Missionary Societies were keenly alive to the danger that +would accrue to the thousands who were going away from +the religious altars of their own land to find themselves +in a strange country, where the means of religious instruction +were of the most meagre description, and where +there would be the most terrible scope for the unbridled +exercise of unholy lusts and passions. They were therefore<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span> +diligently on the look-out for men of strong nerve and +character, who could speak the right word to their fellows, +amid the fierce excitement which burned within them;—men +who could remind them of the hallowed association of their +old homes, consecrated as they had been by Sabbath and +Bible, and, by the remembrance of these, woo them to an +interest in those things which would be found important and +lasting when all the gold of Australia should have lost its +value. The directors found many such men;—men brave +enough to remain poor, while thousands around them were +becoming rich; men who, in their strong might of godliness, +stood like so many breakwaters against the surging flood of +sensuality, avarice, and full-blown pride, which, in the course +of time, threatened to submerge the land.</p> + +<p>Among the men to whom the attention of the Wesleyan Missionary +Committee was directed was Daniel James Draper, +whom they were told was well adapted for Missionary service.</p> + +<p>Physically, he was a strong man; a man about the middle +height in stature, vigorous build, honest open face illumined +by softly shining eyes, and voice of full trumpet tone; a man +capable of fatigue, one who could endure hardness; decided, +resolute, cheerful, and withal gentle in every thing he did; +liberal and catholic in his tendencies, ready to learn and apt to +teach; and above all, a man of strong faith and devotion. +When it was proposed to him to go abroad, he gave the matter +a brief but very earnest consideration, and at length he intimated +his willingness to obey the wish of the Committee, and +at the same time to be obedient to what he believed to be +the call of duty and the will of God. By this time he was a +married man, his wife being the daughter of Mr. Webb, of +Fareham; and the young couple prepared to set out for +Australia. The young Missionary looked forward to his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span> +future field of labour with the calmest confidence, as he +thought of the Divine presence accompanying him, and that +he was neither going away from his Saviour nor his work, +because going to a distant land. He took an affectionate +farewell of his family and many friends, some of whom +accompanied him to the ship.</p> + +<p>There are many yet living who can remember well the +period of his leaving England, and all the circumstances +attending it. He went away on the 13th October 1835, with +the farewells of many devoted and noble men ringing in his +ears, whom, in the providence of God, he was never destined to +meet again. Jabez Bunting, among others, had given him +every encouragement, and had said to him, “Years of labour +may be before you, but success is certain: it must come, it +must come!”—He left his native shores with those words +animating his heart:—“Success is certain; <em>it must come, +it must come</em>!” Never were words more prophetic of +the success which awaited the young Missionary’s efforts +in the far-off land to which he was going. The voyage +out was a dangerous one; the ship was overtaken by a +violent storm, and at one time the Captain had said, that in +six hours they would all be at the bottom; and thus shipwreck +marked the beginning and close of his Missionary life.</p> + +<p>Mr. Draper arrived at Sydney early in the year 1836, and +applied himself to his work with all the enthusiasm and energy +which were among his main characteristics. He could indeed +speak conscientiously of “doing a week’s work,” for labour with +him meant something, and was far remote from pretence. On +Sunday morning he preached in the city, in the afternoon at a +place fourteen miles off, and in the evening again at Sydney. +Every day and every evening of the week had their engagements, +which he perseveringly discharged; and while thus<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span> +earnest in his own sphere, he was on the most brotherly terms +of communion with the various branches of the church of +Christ at Sydney and surrounding towns. He could truly +say,</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Be they many or few, my days are His due,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And they all are devoted to Him.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>A large amount of success attended labours thus constant +and conscientious; many, very many, will have reason to bless +God for his ministry at Sydney. It was not without drinking +of sorrow’s bitter cup, however, that he had to commence his +work amid new scenes and circumstances. He was early +called upon to resign his young wife and child into the arms +of death, and to feel the grief of a widower among strange +people.</p> + +<p>Subsequently his life for many years became subject to the +changes incident to Missionary life amongst members of the +Wesleyan community, and he was removed from station to +station. It is gratifying to note, however, that he left no +station without also leaving behind him the impress of a man +whose one object it was to bring souls to God. In 1837 we +see him pursuing his work at Paramatta; and from 1838 +until 1841 at Bathurst. He is at Sydney again from the last +date until 1845. He goes to Melbourne in 1846, and he was +there for twelve months, during all the excitement produced by +the discovery of gold.</p> + +<p>The following year, he removed to Adelaide, and continued +there until the year 1854. In 1855 he once more +returned to Melbourne, and travelled successively in the +East circuit, the North and the South. He was not without +honour from his brethren in the ministry, who, in 1857, +chose him to be Secretary of the Australian Conference,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span> +and, in the year 1859, elected him to fulfil the post of President. +In addition to his pastoral and other duties, we may also +remark that he had deeply interested himself, being a man of +some means himself, in getting a provision made for poor +ministers and for the widows of such, and his benevolent +wishes were partly accomplished.</p> + +<p>Such, then, is a brief outline of Daniel James Draper’s life, +during a period of about thirty years in Australia. The details +of those years of honourable service in the church of +Christ will, if published, reveal a life of no ordinary labour +and no common success. But, if never published to be read +by the eye of man, we rejoice in thinking that they are +already known to Him who called him home, bade him rest +from his labours, and left them to follow him.</p> + +<p>In the year 1865 Mr. Draper determined upon once more +visiting his native land, and the scenes of his childhood. It +is said that the love of Home was very strong in him, and +that like a magnet it would every now and then draw his +heart towards his country and towards old Fareham scenes +and associations. His parents were now dead, and many of +the friends of his youth were gone, but still it would be good +to see the old place once more. He had married again, his +wife being the daughter of Mr. Shelley, one of the first +Missionaries to Tahiti, who sailed by the ship <i>Duff</i> at the end +of the last century. She was an amiable and accomplished +lady, worthy of her parentage and worthy of her husband: we +cannot accord her higher praise, or it should be freely given. +Having resolved to revisit the land of his birth, he was not +long in making all necessary arrangements, and accompanied +by the best wishes of friends at Melbourne, Mr. and Mrs. +Draper sailed in the <i>Great Britain</i>, and, after a voyage +of sixty-four days, landed at Liverpool May 20th of last<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span> +year. He had come to this country not only that his heart +might be charmed by old and familiar scenes, and by intercourse +with friends, some of whose faces he had never +seen, but also in an official capacity. The Methodist Conference +of Australia had desired him to be their representative +at the British Conference, and his brethren in +Australia had expressed themselves thus concerning him:—“The +Rev. Daniel J. Draper has our ready consent to visit +the land of our fathers. By our unanimous wish he is commended +to you as our representative in your next Conference. +You need not be informed of his valuable services to us; his +intimate knowledge of our Connexion; or the high esteem +and confidence in which he is held. We believe that from +you he will receive a most affectionate welcome. He will be +followed by our prayers, that he may return to us in health, +and in the fulness of the blessing of Christ.”</p> + +<p>The welcome which his brethren thus bespoke for him he +everywhere most cordially received. He preached in London, +in Great Queen Street Chapel; he was at the laying of the stone +of the Wesleyan chapel now being erected in the Caledonian +Road; he preached in St. James’s Hall, taking one afternoon +the place of a minister who was unable to conduct the special +service there; and he preached, last of all, it is believed, at +Dalston, and afterwards administered the Lord’s Supper with +much solemnity.</p> + +<p>As the representative of the Australian Conference, he +attended the British Conference at Birmingham, and, with the +same object in view, he visited Scotland and Ireland. At the +sitting of the Conference in Birmingham, his modesty, his +manly sense, his quiet earnestness, and his unaffected devotion +called forth the general respect and admiration of the +ministerial fathers and brethren present. He also visited<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span> +some of the principal towns in England, and showed himself +everywhere the courteous, kindly, and cheerful man, with a +sound judgment and well-informed mind. As might have been +expected, Fareham, the scene of his childhood and of his first +efforts to preach Christ, was among the places he visited. +He preached there, and had the grave of his parents attended +to and beautified.</p> + +<p>We have met with those whose happiness it was to +come in contact with him during his stay in this country, +and on all hands the testimony is, that he was a man as +much beloved for the rich human qualities of his heart, as +he was respected for his extensive practical knowledge of life +and the world. One remembers his hearty cheerful laugh, +another his telling anecdotes of Australian life, and another +the simplicity and fervour of his prayers. One tells of the +trouble he took to find out a young man in London, for +whom he had been entrusted with a message of kindness; all +can tell of the deep tender devotion of the man, untarnished +by so much as a touch of fanaticism. One who was brought +into close communion with him for several hours, about two +or three weeks before he sailed in the <i>London</i>, has <span class="locked">said:—</span></p> + +<p>“I was much impressed by Mr. Draper’s conversation and +bearing. He had seen the world, and he talked like a man to +whom men and things were familiar. The experiences of life +had evidently accomplished their purpose in him. He was +in command of himself; his judgment was strong and well-balanced; +his tone and manner altogether showed the completeness, +the symmetry, and the tender and genial perfection +of one who had laboured and suffered, and, in all, had grown +wiser and better, and more serviceable for his generation and +mankind. His centre could not be doubted. Christ and +Christ’s work, these were conspicuously the objects about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span> +which his whole thought and being revolved. Cheerful, pleasant, +courteous, alive to all that was going on around him, +utterly free from all sourness and affectation, he exhibited, +with wonderful attractiveness, the simplicity, purity, dignity, +and high and holy aims of the minister of Christ. His prayer +at family worship I shall never forget. As he offered it, I +could not but remark how the little child and ripe saint met +in those natural, lowly, reverent, and calmly mighty supplications. +It was the prayer of a man, between whose spirit +and God there was no haze, and who was as sure of answer +as if voices from heaven told him he was heard.”</p> + +<p>In November last he engaged a berth in the <i>London</i>. There +were many who would have prolonged his stay in this +country if possible, but Mr. Draper’s wish was, now that he +had accomplished the end for which he had come to England, +to return to the land of his adoption. He was advised to +go through Egypt, and indulge himself with a few weeks +journey through the Sinaitic peninsula and Palestine, but he +seemed even anxious now to return to his work at Melbourne. +In one of his last conversations with the Hon. W. A. M<sup>c</sup>Arthur, +who had expressed some regret at the shortness of his stay in +England, Mr. Draper said, “Well, I could spend another year +in England very pleasantly, and should like to do so if my +conscience would allow me, but I feel I must get back to my +work.”</p> + +<p>“Little,” says Mr. M<sup>c</sup>Arthur, “did he then imagine that +his work on earth was so nearly finished, and that he was so +soon to enter into the joy of his Lord; but if ‘that life be +long which answers life’s great end,’ then Mr. Draper has +lived a long life; and having had the pleasure of his +acquaintance upwards of twenty years, I can testify that his +was a joyous, happy life, and that much of his happiness consisted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span> +in seeing others happy, and endeavouring to make +them so.”</p> + +<p>And now we are in the track of the devoted Missionary, as +he prepares to go on board the vessel which was soon to meet +with a disaster terrible beyond many of the most grievous in +the annals of shipwreck. Now that the agony is over, and +the faithful one at rest, we are disposed to see a meaning in +that dream—the story comes to us on good authority—which, +thrice repeated, bade him resist all the importunities of friends, +and go by the <i>London</i>, <em>and no other way</em>, and we would not +have had him disobedient to the voice.</p> + +<p>To a friend in Dublin he wrote, a few days before he +sailed—“The steamer (the <i>London</i>) is a fine new vessel, +having gone out but twice. Last time she did the voyage in +sixty days. We join her (<span class="allsmcap">D. V.</span>) at Plymouth on the 2nd +January, and she will leave that port at six <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span> on that day. +We trust in God our Heavenly Father for protection on our +way, and delight in the thought that we shall be remembered +by kind friends when they bow at the throne of grace.”</p> + +<p>And so the good, genial, loving man went away from the +land he loved, notwithstanding the associations of thirty years +life in another country; from his Hampshire home which was +as dear to him now, though approaching sixty years of age, as +when he played there as a little child; and from the newly done-up +grave, where the dust of his parents was sleeping. At the +bidding of his Master, into whose hands he had committed his +entire life, he had moved from station to station in Australia. +He had never doubted the will of God in the successive +changes which had marked his colonial life. He believed +that there was a work for him to do in every place to which +he was called, though he went to station after station, not +knowing the things which were to befall him there. Shall we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span> +doubt now that a voice in richest mercy towards others, +summoned him to a station in which he was to do his last here +for the Master who loved him, and who had need of him +indeed for an awful service, but on which hung a reward and a +blessing more glorious than heart can ever dream of?</p> + +<p>We believe that he had only been a few days out when +he felt this, and summoned all his energies rightly to discharge +the duty his Master had called him to, to make his +last, his best. Serenely committing himself to the keeping of +a merciful and faithful Creator, Daniel Draper perhaps never +thought of his own wants, until he awoke up in glory, and +found with sweet surprise that he had none, that he was in +the likeness of his God, that he had exchanged corruption for +incorruption, that mortality had been swallowed up in the deep, +deep sea, and that around him were not shipwrecked mariners +in their dripping garments and looks of agony, but faces bright +with joy, and forms radiant with the glory of immortality.</p> + +<figure id="i_41" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 14em;"> + <img src="images/i_041.jpg" width="838" height="874" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V"><span id="toclink_36"></span>CHAPTER V.<br> + +<span class="subhead">THE LIST OF PASSENGERS.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">We</span> must pause yet once more before accompanying the +voyagers, that we may know as many of them as we possibly +can. Many we perhaps shall never know: their very names +are already forgotten; or if we turn to look at them they tell of +no history, and suggest no personal remembrance. On such a +day they were in the <i>London</i>, on such a day they sank with +her in the Bay of Biscay. This is all perhaps we shall ever +know concerning them.</p> + +<p>A gentleman, who knew most of the passengers on board—and +we give an authorized list of the names in the +Appendix—when he heard of the catastrophe, remarked, +that it would throw half Melbourne into mourning. +Doubtless it will, and into how many other places besides +will not the news of the catastrophe carry mourning? That +one poor Bavarian, those two hapless Danes, had they no +friends in the world to shed a tear over their watery grave? +We dare not forget that each one, as he embarked, carried +within him, as it were, a very world of varied interest, and +that the hopes and sympathies of the unknown and poor were +as precious and beautiful to those who knew and loved them, +as were the plans and fortunes of the well-known and wealthy +to the circle of which they formed part. Every death we see +recorded should bring before us, in imagination, a bier, around +which we see gathering a collection of mourners, refusing to be +comforted, because their loved one is not. When we hear of a +multitude of persons perishing in some dread calamity like +the present, we must remember that, while all died together,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span> +each died alone, and will be mourned as if he alone had +died. More than two hundred individual worlds of thought +and feeling, of sympathy and design, went down beneath the +ocean wave on that wild stormy afternoon. Each of these +worlds was perhaps the very sun of other worlds, that will now +receive a sudden and awful shock. Many men, many poor +men even, so live that they are centres of operations which, +although not brilliant in the world’s estimation, are of the +deepest possible interest to all concerned in them, and when +they die, it is as if the sun had been removed out of its place.</p> + +<p>Nor do we forget, as we take up the list of passengers who +went out in the <i>London</i>, that every one had a separate and +solemn history. We do not forget that the issues of life +were unspeakably important, not only to all, but, in a very +solemn manner, to each—to the poor Danish sailor as well as +to the Oxford scholar: we do not forget that to each one +on board, this question was proposed amid circumstances +most appalling, “What shall it profit a man if he gain the +whole world and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give +in exchange for his soul?” We dare not forget the infinite +value of every soul on board.</p> + +<p>As, during the week which followed the mournful announcement +that the <i>London</i> had foundered, we looked each day +into the first column of the <i>Times</i>, or as country newspapers +reached us, we tried more and more vividly to realize how +much that list of the drowned meant, and how names that we +had read confusedly amidst a mass of others, became eloquent +with interest as we caught snatches here and there of the life-history +belonging to them. But we have no doubt that there +was not one on board whose history was completely destitute +of interest and charm, to some few at least, and that tears +have been shed for many who were nothing more than plain,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span> +humble people, getting an honourable living by the sweat of +their brow, and who will find no biographer to tell the unassuming +story of their lives. In the scores of shipwrecks that +occur every year, the worthy unknown should not be without +the sympathy, if they are shut out from the recognition +which well-known names immediately demand. Of late +years, perhaps, if we may judge from the newspapers, +from letters which have reached us, and from interviews +with friends of the deceased, there has not often +been a wreck in which such a variety of characters had +each to act a most solemn part. On board the <i>London</i> there +was life beginning and life ending in the aged and the young +who were going out to the new land. There was the competence +which had come after arduous and successful toil, and +there was the poverty whose only capital lay hidden in its +hopeful industry: there was the lawyer and the divine, the +merchant and the engineer, the man of letters and the rude +brawny artisan; the actor and the banker; the experienced +traveller and the humble villager from Cornwall. Something +of the varied life of the world at large lay mirrored in that +vessel that was preparing to steam away from Plymouth. +The brief notices of deaths which appeared day after +day revealed dark depths of sorrow, into which one was +almost afraid to look,—tragedies enacted full of horror unspeakable.</p> + +<p>Let us glance for a moment at those of whom we know +nothing beyond their names, before proceeding to notice those +whose position in society and whose well-known histories +speedily found biographers.</p> + +<p>On the 11th inst., lost at sea, on board the steamship +<i>London</i>, James Thomas, Esq., late of London, formerly of +Huddersfield, Yorkshire, together with his beloved wife and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span> +two children; also Elizabeth Hartley, for many years a most +faithful servant of the above.</p> + +<p>On the 11th inst., lost at sea, in the steamship <i>London</i>, aged +23, John Ruskin Richardson, youngest son of the late John +George Richardson, Esq., many years a resident of Sydney, +New South Wales.</p> + +<p>On the 11th instant, in the steamship <i>London</i>, in his twenty-first +year, Archibald, seventh son of Hellen Sandilands, of 56, +Belsize-park, and of the late John Sandilands of Conduit-street.</p> + +<p>On the 11th instant, lost at sea, in the steamship <i>London</i>, +on her voyage to Melbourne, Gilbert Andrew Amos, Esq., +Police Magistrate and Warden, Heidelburg, Victoria, and +third son of the late Andrew Amos, Esq., of St. Ibbs, Hitchin, +Herts; also, at the same time and place, Isabella Dick Amos, +wife of the above; also, at the same time and place, Miss +Catherine M<sup>c</sup>Lachlan, aged 22, sister of the said Isabella +Dick Amos.</p> + +<p>On the 11th inst., in the steamship <i>London</i>, on her voyage +to Melbourne, Edward Youngman, Esq., aged 44, greatly +beloved and regretted by a numerous circle of friends.</p> + +<p>On the 11th inst., lost at sea, in the steamship <i>London</i>, +George F. P. Urquhart, Esq., of Evandale, Auckland, New +Zealand, and Mary Chauncy, his wife, late of 11, Kensington-park +Villas, W., daughter of the late Major James +Burke, of the 77th and 99th Regiments, of Arlaman, county +Limerick, Ireland.</p> + +<p>These are only a few instances out of many that might be +given; but now to look at names, well known, take first the +story of the Cumberland emigrants.</p> + +<p>It appears that no less than ten persons who went out in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span> +the <i>London</i> were connected with Cumberland; one family, +consisting of William Graham, his wife, and three children, +having gone from Carlisle. It is a sad story—one which +cannot be read even by strangers without the most sorrowful +feelings. William Graham, tailor, aged 51 years; Ellen, his +wife, 49 years; George, his son, 10 years; a daughter, 3 +years; a baby, aged 4 months; Thomas Graham, aged 40 years; +Mary, his wife, aged 27 years; David Graham, aged 37 years; +David M<sup>c</sup>Vittie, aged 30 years, blacksmith, Newtown; and +John Little, aged 30 years, fireman on the North British Railway. +The three Grahams were brothers. Thomas had been +out in Victoria twelve years, and David followed him four +years afterwards, and had since been engaged in business with +him. Success followed their farming operations, until they +were enabled to purchase an estate. In their prosperity the +brothers were not unmindful of their old home, and during +the prevalence of distress at Longtown, in consequence of the +cotton famine, they generously sent over a sum of 60<i>l.</i> for the +relief of the sufferers. They also sent a large amount of relief +to Manchester. In August last they came to England, with +the view of seeing their friends, and of purchasing implements. +Upwards of 1000<i>l.</i> they laid out in this way, and sent +out before them a variety of implements for the farm. +Thomas had another purpose to effect, also, in visiting the old +country, and that was to marry, and take home with him a +wife. He married Sarah Bruce, a native of Banff, and they +were married only a week before they left Carlisle to take up +their berths on board the <i>London</i>. Their brother, William +Graham, agreed to go out with them, they paying his passage, +and he took with him his family, as stated above. Little and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span>M<sup>c</sup>Vittie, friends of the Grahams, were also going out with +them. Both men were in the employ of the North British +Railway Company, Little as fireman, and M<sup>c</sup>Vittie as a blacksmith. +Little was a remarkably steady and amiable young +man. He was the eldest of a family of eleven children, and +is survived both by his father and mother. The whole party of +emigrants left for London on the 27th of December last, and a +large number of friends assembled to bid them farewell, and +three hearty cheers were given as the train started. Such +were ten at least who had each a history inestimably precious +to a wide circle of friends at home and abroad, and, simple +though these people were by the side of more brilliant names, +there is a quiet naturalness about their story that will appeal to +many hearts.</p> + +<p>On board the <i>London</i> also was Mr. Henry John Dennis, a +gentleman of some note in Australia and America. A few +years ago Mr. Dennis narrowly escaped shipwreck in the +<i>Marco Polo</i>, a vessel that in speed and celebrity used to compete +with the <i>Suffolk</i> when Captain Martin commanded her. +In the middle of the night, in the Southern Ocean, the <i>Marco +Polo</i> struck an iceberg; but on that terrible occasion Mr. +Dennis had been of some service. He had since been a very +active colonial explorer, and had for many months been engaged +in a hazardous hunting expedition in the wild regions +and among the savage tribes which lie at the back of Port +Natal. He is understood also to be the first, if not the only +Englishman who has grown cotton in the Southern States of +the American Union by free negro labour. Starting for +America while the civil war was at its height, he took a +plantation on the Mississippi, and though he had to cope with +plundering bands of guerillas and with many other dangers +and inconveniences, he nevertheless succeeded in raising a +crop, and only retired when he found that in the then existing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span> +state of things it was utterly impossible to grow cotton without +great pecuniary loss as well as personal risk.</p> + +<p>There was a clergyman on board, distinguished for his +many and varied gifts, and who was beloved by a very wide +circle of friends, both in England and Australia—the Rev. Dr. +Woolley, to whose worth and talents Dean Stanley and Sir +Charles Nicholson, formerly Speaker of the Legislative Assembly +of New-South Wales, have paid the very warmest tribute, +as, indeed, have a host of the scholarly and worthy of the land. +Dr. Woolley was in the 49th year of his age, and his course in +life had been one of usefulness and honour in the branches of +learning to which he had specially devoted himself. His life +had been that of the Professor rather than of the working clergyman. +He matriculated at University College, London, but +subsequently removed to Oxford, where in 1836 he took a +first-class degree in classics. On leaving Oxford, he became +successively Head Master of Rossal School, in Lancashire, and +of King Edward’s Grammar School at Norwich. This last +office he relinquished on obtaining the appointment of Professor +in 1852, in the University of Sydney, which had just +been incorporated under an Act of the local Legislature. +His duties in this new position were most important, as upon +him devolved the organization and successful working, under +circumstances of great difficulty, of a great national institution. +But he threw himself into the work cast upon him with +enthusiasm, and laboured with untiring zeal and energy. He +succeeded in a very marked degree in winning to himself and +moulding the taste and character of the young men placed +under his control. The gentleness—almost feminine—of his +nature, the warmth and generosity of his heart, his distinguished +attainments as a scholar, and the eloquence and +earnestness with which he was wont to impart instruction, not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span> +only to the Undergraduates of the University, but to the members +of various popular institutions with which he was connected, +have been tenderly spoken of, and will be long remembered +by hundreds of persons. He came to this country a +few months ago for rest, and very pleasant to himself, and to +those who knew him, was his brief sojourn here. From many, +as we at least read the matter, there came tempting inducements +to settle down in England among associations more +consonant with a refined taste than those of colonial life; but +with him, too, the mainspring of life was obedience to duty, and +he must return to the work waiting to be done by him. He +had been exceedingly happy here. A writer in <i>Macmillan</i> +says that one who saw him during his latest days in England +writes of him <span class="locked">thus:—</span></p> + +<p>“His tastes were those of a refined and cultivated man. +He told me that his stay here, mixing in the society of men of +letters, had been a delight to him beyond what I, who was +always in it, could conceive. Had he met Tennyson and Browning, +nothing could be more to his taste than the companionship +of such men, with whom his own qualities made him a +most welcome guest. He had in perfection the bright, gentle, +cheery manner that characterizes the best Oxford man. In +stature he was small, but his face most pleasant to look at. +He was very active in all sorts of societies and institutions +for the benefit of working-men and men engaged in business. +His age must have been about fifty, but he looked younger. +He had a wife and six children waiting his return to Sydney, +whither, as I perceived, he was determined to go, for he felt +his work lay there, and his duty. He went back to fulfil his +duty, and has fulfilled it. He is remembered by many whom +he left in England as the good man—John Woolley.”</p> + +<p>There was another passenger of celebrity on board—Mr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span> +G. V. Brooke. He was of respectable family, and some +members of it were highly distinguished in literature. In +early boyhood he had been a pupil of Lovel Edgeworth, the +brother of Maria Edgeworth. His father, who was an architect, +had other views concerning him than those which the +son lived to fulfil. He was educated with a view to the bar; +but while quite young he was thrown amongst those who +were devoted to private theatricals, and he was so captivated +that he relinquished his law studies and applied himself to +theatrical pursuits. He met with some successes, and many +reverses, particularly in Australia. Of all places in the +world, after his many ups and downs in life, on the morning +of the 6th January he was on board the <i>London</i>, and his +sister was with him.</p> + +<figure id="i_51" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 23em;"> + <img src="images/i_051.jpg" width="1415" height="2043" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption">G. V. BROOKE.</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>We had written thus far when there came a note from a +surgeon, saying that if we would call in a street near the +General Post Office, information of an interesting character +awaited us. It concerned the loss of those of whose death there +had been no advertisement—Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, with their +son, a young man of twenty-one years. The mourning +garments, the pale, sunken look of woe, the open photographic +album, near to which were black-bordered notes, told at once +of some one lost, and of tears shed, of which few had taken +notice. Mr. Clarke had gone to Melbourne more than thirty +years before, accompanied by his wife and two or three +children. He had prospered there as a saddler, and as the +years went by, he was enabled to bring up a large family in +every comfort and respectability. There was born to him a +son, however, who unhappily, through a diseased bone, had a +useless arm. The sight of the youth’s sufferings was always +painful to his parents, and so it came to pass that last year +the aged people, as they were now, determined to come to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span> +England to obtain the best advice. Money was no object, +and they reckoned that for about £1500 the three +might come and go, and perhaps the son be cured. They +came, enjoyed themselves immensely, heard preachers of +whom they had often heard but never seen; went about here +and there; and, best of all, under an operation performed by +Sir W. Ferguson, the son’s arm was cured, and made whole +as the other. Mr. Clarke would have taken back with him +a brave little boy, around whose neck we saw the arm of a +mother fondly thrown, as if she would thus keep the child +safe. He would have made the boy’s fortune his care out in +Melbourne; but the mother kept her child; and Mr. and Mrs. +Clarke, and their son, rejoicing in his recovered strength, +went on board the <i>London</i>, to be met on the other side of the +sea, as they hoped, by their children and grandchildren. +Before sailing, the father wrote a letter, the last words of +which were a prayer, and it was with inexpressible comfort, +in the midst of grief, that the relatives of the family reflected +that the three were not unprepared to die.</p> + +<p>Week by week will reveal more and more of the preciousness +of those on board to those who now mourn their loss. +But the story will never be completely told. Numbers will +be mourned in secret, of whom we shall know nothing until +the sea gives up its dead.</p> + +<figure id="i_53" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 13em;"> + <img src="images/i_053.jpg" width="782" height="490" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI"><span id="toclink_48"></span>CHAPTER VI.<br> + +<span class="subhead">THREE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF DANGER ON THE DEEP.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">With</span> her precious freight of human life on board, the <i>London</i> +left Plymouth in the very early morning of Saturday, January +the 6th. A sailor’s superstition had been respected, some +would say, and the anchor had not been hove up until a short +time after midnight of Friday; so that it was really on a +Saturday that the vessel set sail. The weather was then +moderate, the wind blowing lightly from the northward, and +little or no sea running. The breakwater was cleared, and the +ship proceeded on her voyage at the speed of about eight +knots an hour: she was going under steam with head to +wind.</p> + +<p>They sighted the Lizard lights about four hours after they +set sail, and the weather then was calm and fine. But an +hour later, at six o’clock on Saturday morning, the weather +changed: the wind veered to the westward, and the sea began +to rise. It is important to bear this in mind, because of the +criticism which has been applied to Captain Martin leaving +Plymouth when the barometer was indicating stormy weather. +One after another of competent witnesses examined affirmed +most positively that the barometer was so shifty that it could +not be relied upon, and that the weather was as favourable +as any one could desire for going to sea. And even if the +weather had been threatening, to have asked Captain Martin +to put back on this account, would have been asking him to +throw away the reputation which it had taken years to acquire, +and to have acted in opposition to the practice of the most +experienced seamen of the day.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span></p> + +<p>On Sunday, January 7th, the wind, which was still +westerly, increased in violence, and there were strong squalls +and a heavy sea, in which the ship rolled considerably. +Religious service was of course held on board, and it was +conducted by Dr. Woolley and Mr. Draper.</p> + +<p>It was not until Monday, the 8th, that the passengers +began to feel anxious concerning their safety, and to regard +their position as becoming every hour more and more +perilous. During Sunday night it was evident that a gale +might be expected, and on Monday morning it was blowing +with great violence. The Captain ordered the engines to +be stopped and sail to be made on the ship. Towards noon +the wind appeared to lull somewhat, and in the evening the +weather had so improved that all sails were taken in, and the +engines again set in motion. The weather, however, soon +changed again, and the gale seemed only to have lulled to +gain new strength; for between eight and twelve of Monday +night the spanker of the ship was blown away by its violence.</p> + +<p>Captain Martin and some of the crew, amongst whom was +the gallant John King, one of the survivors, endeavoured to +get the spanker in, and at last succeeded. It was a night of +raving wind and rolling sea, and we hear of sleepless passengers +below in their cabins reading the Bible to each other, +and offering solemn prayer to Him who rode upon the wings +of the wind. All that night Captain Martin was here and +there throughout the ship—indeed he was to sleep no more +until the dreadful afternoon of Thursday—and all the orders +which he gave were speedily executed by the crew. The +wind was blowing a full gale, and mizenstaysail and forestaysail +and maintopmaststaysail and reefspanker had been set.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday morning, January 9th, commenced that dismal +series of disasters under which eventually the noble vessel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span> +succumbed. The wind was blowing a hard gale from the +S.W. and there was a very heavy sea. The ship was now +making little more than two knots an hour, as her speed had +been reduced, and she was going through the water under +steam only. She pitched tremendously, and every now and +then whole seas dashed over her bows. Such was the state +of things early on Tuesday morning; but the passengers +below as yet only heard the fury of the storm without; they +were safe and dry in their cabins: the fires burnt brightly in +the engine-room, and the two engineers, Messrs. Jones and +Greenhill, surveyed with satisfaction the strong hatchway +which protected their engines from the seas which broke +over the vessel. Bearing in mind what we have said concerning +the size of the engine-room, the reader will be prepared +to learn, that if that engine-room were flooded with +water, the ship would undoubtedly sink. There needed no +other accident than this to secure the shipwreck of the vessel. +The officers on deck could comfort themselves with the +assurance, that though exposed themselves to the storm and +heavy seas which broke over the ship, their passengers were +safe, and they would, by the help of their good engines below, +slowly plough their way through waves that looked as if +they would roll mountains high.</p> + +<p>At seven o’clock on Tuesday morning an unusually heavy +sea broke into the lifeboat stowed on the port-quarter, filling +the boat and carrying her away, with all her gear. This +was deemed a most melancholy occurrence, and a series +of minor disasters followed. At nine o’clock the ship gave a +tremendous pitch forward, as if she were about to bury herself, +prow foremost, and in a moment afterwards the sea, with +a force that made the hardiest seaman quail, tore away the jib +and flying jibboom, which carried away with them the foretopmast,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span> +the foretopgallantmast, foreroyalmast, and mainroyalmast, +with all their spars and sails, and other gear. Portions +of the wreck fell clattering on the deck, or hung suspended +by the rigging: the topmast was swinging in the rigging and +the foreroyalmast was hanging down and swinging with the +motion of the ship. The jibboom was lying on the starboard +bow, right over in the water!</p> + +<p>Thus, at one fell stroke, the beautiful vessel had been +dismantled, and received damage which, in the storm that then +raged, it was next to impossible to repair. Captain Martin +was cool and self-possessed in the midst of the untoward +occurrence, and efforts were at once put forth to remedy the +disaster, but to little purpose. The masts which had fallen +on board, and which hung suspended by their rigging, and +the jibboom, which was fastened to the ship by stays of wire, +could not be got clear; and thus it was, with the ship in this +dismantled condition, with the gale still increasing in fury, +and with a sea that kept constantly washing all forward, that +the passengers and crew of the <i>London</i> steamed slowly ahead +through the awful night.</p> + +<p>There was little sleep on board that night, we may be sure. +The devoted Mr. Draper had already begun the work of +directing the minds of the passengers to Him who had promised +to be a Refuge from the storm, a very present help in +every time of need, and already we hear of earnest prayers +offered for all needful grace to support the bitterness of the +calamity. We know now, and it is a great light shining in +the midst of the darkness, that there were many Christians on +board, who, in the hour of peril, would be enabled to point the +distressed to the sinner’s Friend. We can scarcely go in any +direction throughout the metropolis without hearing the glad +tidings of one, and another, and another, being on board, who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span> +would not be afraid to die, and who would be sure to be of +use to shrinking and, perhaps, unprepared fellow-sufferers. +And in the cabins below it is very beautiful to hear the voice +of supplication mingled with the din and war of the tempest. +We hear at least of a few, who, in the second cabin, were +engaged throughout the night in reading the Bible by turns. +Mrs. Price, Mrs. Wood, who had with her her husband and +five children, Miss Brooker, and Miss Marks, are among those +thus engaged. Throughout the vessel the feeling has gone +forth that the passengers may never reach land, and may at +any moment be called upon to exchange time for eternity. +Thus the long dreary night of Tuesday wore away, and +Wednesday came, bringing with it disasters that quickly rivalled +each other in horror.</p> + +<p>Early on Wednesday morning, about three o’clock, Captain +Martin ordered the engineers to get up full speed, as he +intended to put the ship about and run for Plymouth. The +gale continued blowing without the least abatement, but in the +course of a little while the dismantled vessel was once more +homeward bound. Mizenstaysails were set, and she steamed +N.N.E. at the rate of five or six knots an hour.</p> + +<p>The chief engineer, Mr. Jones, is obliged to give up through +sickness, and now it is Mr. Greenhill, the second engineer, who +has to carry out the Captain’s orders in regard to the engines +throughout the day. The engines are in perfect working +order, and although the vessel has shipped a little water +through the number of seas that have broken over her, there +is none in the engine-room, and the brass-bound and grated +skylight above is perfectly safe. There is not a crack in it +that he can see, and, with the engines revolving more quickly +now, away the vessel is steaming, head to the wind.</p> + +<p>In the course of the morning the damage of the preceding day<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span> +was repaired, so far as securing the masts, which, up to this time, +had been swinging about aloft, and the wreck of the jibbooms +cleared away from the ship. At noon an observation was +taken, and indicated their position to be lat. 46·48 N., and long. +8·7 W., viz. in the Bay of Biscay, and about 200 miles +S.W. of Land’s End. As they hoped to make Plymouth +soon, and to refit there before proceeding on their voyage, no +repairs were attempted, save making the wreck as trim as +they could.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, we have to say again, the fury of the storm +increased, and the waves were running mountains high. It +was six o’clock on Wednesday evening, and their course was +N.N.E., when the wind increased into a perfect hurricane +from N.W., the squalls blowing with a degree of fury seldom +paralleled. The vessel rolled and pitched fearfully, shipping +every now and then large quantities of water. Suddenly the +fore and mainstaysails were violently torn away by the +squall, and went flying away into the darkness. Shortly +afterwards, the lifeboat and cutter, which were stowed away +on the starboard side, were stove in and carried away by the +violence of the sea. As the night deepened, and nine o’clock +approached, the ship was in a hurricane, the like of which the +oldest seaman on board had never seen!</p> + +<p>The engines had been stopped, and the Captain was relying +now upon his sails to bear him through, but they were blown +to shreds and ribbons, and the once stately vessel, so strongly +built and so perfectly equipped, was now the mere sport of +winds and waves. In a few hours those on board had, if the +storm continued, received an irreparable loss, for three out of +seven of their boats had been carried away by the sea. Their +two lifeboats, that would have held so many, and would have +perhaps taken them in safety to land, were gone. Nevertheless,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span> +Captain Martin was not the man to indulge in feelings of +despondency, or to waste time in useless regrets. A solemn +responsibility rested upon him, and we believe he was true to +it if man ever was.</p> + +<p>“Set the engines going, and keep her head N.N.E.”</p> + +<p>“Ay! ay! Sir.”</p> + +<p>And on through the wild dark night and surging sea +the poor <i>London</i> drove; when disaster upon disaster fell +upon her with crushing weight. At half-past ten a terrific +sea broke over the port-gangway, and what the sailors +graphically called a mountain of water descended almost +perpendicularly over the hatch of the engine-room. That +hatch, as we have already said, was deemed strong enough +to keep out any sea that might ever dash over a ship. +Altogether it weighed about a ton and a half, and it measured +12 ft. by 9 ft. It was glazed with plate glass half an +inch thick, and there were gratings of galvanized iron over +the glass, and the bars were three-quarters of an inch thick. +Yet, although thus strongly built and brass fastened, that +mass of water, which descended almost perpendicularly, dashed +through the hatchway, down which it threw violently two +men, and, literally smashing every thing in its way, immediately +flooded the engine-room with water.</p> + +<p>Mr. Jones, the first engineer, ill though he was, immediately +ran from his berth, and descended to the engine-room, where he +found Mr. Greenhill standing by the engines. The engine-room +was flooding, and a body of water was passing down the +hatchway. The hatchway had been swept clean away, and +there was now nothing to prevent the rushing in of the sea. +Of all calamities, this was the one most to be deplored: the +ship’s carpenter could do nothing in the way of repairing, and +yet down they must all go, and that speedily, unless something<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span> +was done, for at every sea the vessel shipped, the water in the +engine-room was rising higher and higher.</p> + +<p>To remedy the evil as far as possible, tarpaulins and canvas +were brought, which the men tried to nail down over the aperture. +The men also tried to put the flying jibboom over the +aperture, but such a hurricane was blowing, that both the canvas +and the men who were trying to batten it down were washed +away. The pumps were set to work, and passengers and crew +worked incessantly, some at the pumps, and some in baling out +the water, which, alas! came pouring in, and which, notwithstanding +all their efforts, rose higher and higher in the engine-room. +Nor could they by any means cover over the opening +which the sea had made by sweeping away the hatchway: +tarpaulins, blankets, sails, mattresses, whatever they could +find, they heaped upon ladders, pieces of wood, and spars, +which they had thrown across as supports; but the storm and +sea mocked their best endeavours; and, alas! about a quarter +past eleven o’clock that night the waters had risen to such +a height that the fires were out, and consequently the engines +ceased working. There was already about five feet of water +in the engine-room, and the ship was labouring heavily in the +trough of the sea. Her condition, therefore, was altogether +hopeless. In consequence of the engines stopping she could +no longer hope to steam through the gale; the engineers +could work no longer, and, for the same reason, the large +bilge-pumps were rendered useless.</p> + +<p>Mr. Greenhill had the painful task of making known to +Captain Martin the saddening intelligence that his fires were +out; and that no more help was to be looked for from the +engines. The Captain received the news with perfect calmness. +He said he was not surprised at it; that he had +expected it; and immediately ordered the maintopsail to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span> +set, in the hope of keeping his ship before the wind. Vain +attempt. The gale tore it to ribbons, and in the trough of the +sea the vessel laboured through the night, rolling gunwale +under. Well, indeed, might the Captain say that night, “You +may say your prayers, boys.” It was a seaman’s way of +saying, “You must prepare for the worst: at any moment we +may go down.” It was indeed a time for prayer, and we +believe that, during that night, of which we shall have a little +more to say in another chapter, such prayers were offered as +were perhaps never offered in sinking ship before.</p> + +<figure id="i_62" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 13em;"> + <img src="images/i_062.jpg" width="790" height="723" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII"><span id="toclink_57"></span>CHAPTER VII.<br> + +<span class="subhead">LAST STRUGGLES.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> morning of Thursday, January 11th, at length came to +the passengers and crew of the foundering <i>London</i>. There +had been, we may be sure, no attempts at seeking rest among +the passengers below. On the deck all night the pumps had +been going, and every one was doing his utmost to second +the good Captain’s efforts to save the ship, if possible. The +bravest had little hope of this, but still every man worked as +if all depended upon his efforts. The universal testimony is, +that passengers and crew did what they could. Some of the +crew, it is true, had to seek their berths through sickness or +terror; but there was no lack of hands to work the ship.</p> + +<p>There was no abatement in the fury of the storm; the +wind raved as violently and the waves thundered as fiercely +as ever against the ship, and there was no change in her +monotonous roll in the trough of the sea. It was the morning +of that fearful night, it may be remembered, when more than +thirty vessels were driven on shore in Torbay. The names of +some of the passengers of the <i>London</i> who strenuously exerted +themselves have been made known, although they have not +come back to hear of the enthusiasm which their gallantry +has inspired in the hearts of thousands. Dr. Woolley worked +with the rest at the pumps, and encouraged the passengers to +do their best: he, though so delicate, and all unused to manual +labour, did his work with the bravest and best of them.</p> + +<p>The exertions of Mr. Brooke, if possible, surpassed those +of any on board. At times he went into the saloon, where his +sister was among the ladies, and where, in frightened groups,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span> +the passengers were engaged in prayer, in reading their Bible, +or in listening to the instructions and consolations of Mr. +Draper. The tragedian would help for a little while in baling +out the water, and then he would away again to the deck to +work at the pumps, and he continued so doing until even he +had to relinquish all hope. Barefooted and bareheaded, +attired only in a Crimean shirt and trousers, now in the +cabin—now on deck—he forms a picture of dauntless heroism +that will long live tenderly in the memory of his friends.</p> + +<p>It was about four o’clock on Thursday morning when a +new disaster occurred, which, added to the sweeping away of +the hatchway on the preceding day, may be said to have sealed +the fate of the vessel. A tremendous sea struck the stern of +the ship, and stove in four of the windows of the upper or poop +cabin. Through the breaches thus made the water rushed in, +and the ’tween decks were soon flooded. The carpenter was +immediately set to work to remedy the disaster, and he found +that the force of the sea had driven back the strong shutters +of the dead lights, and broken the glass of the sashes inside, +and the sea was pouring in in great quantities. He endeavoured +to secure the ports by shoring them with a spar placed +against a post on the main deck, so as to make the shutters +once more firm, although the sashes had been driven in. The +stratagem succeeded for a little while, but as the ship got +deeper in the water the sea drove the ports entirely in, and +soon rushed about unchecked through the upper and into +the lower saloon.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, on deck the efforts of both passengers and +crew were directed more earnestly than ever towards keeping +the gaping aperture over the engine-room covered. The +ship was fast settling down, and was more than half full of +water. Captain Martin went down with Mr. Greenhill into<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span> +the room, and, upon the engineer taking soundings it was +found that there were fourteen feet of water, the whole of +which had come through the hatchway, notwithstanding all the +efforts made to keep it out. There was also a considerable +increase of water between the decks. Every time the ship +lurched in the trough of the sea she was taking in tons of +water over the gunwale. Captain Martin did not lose heart, +but at the same time told Mr. Greenhill that he had now little +hope of saving the ship. Nevertheless, upon going on deck, after +this examination of the engine-room, he cried to those who +were baling out water, “Men! put down the buckets and come +and try to secure the engine-room hatch, for that is the only +chance to save the ship. Secure that, and we may keep her up!”</p> + +<p>Instantly the Captain’s order was obeyed, and once more the +men tried to nail down sails and tarpauling, which the sea, +however, washed ruthlessly away, or flapped down into the +engine-room. Among those who laboured hard at this work, +useless though it too soon proved, was John King, who had +been hurt the preceding evening by his fall overboard. The +violence of the sea and storm was such, that men were driven +hither and thither by it on deck, knocked against casks and +pieces of the wreck, and were in imminent danger of being +washed overboard, as King had been. But there was no relaxation +of effort. Mr. Angell was at the donkey-engine, +Dr. Woolley, Mr. Brooke, and other passengers at the pumps, +and many were engaged in vigorously baling out the water +from the lower saloon, through the upper saloon, and over +the upper deck.</p> + +<p>All efforts, however, were unavailing. Mr. Wilson, one of the +survivors, said, that as it was getting light, he asked Captain +Martin if he should go on baling out the water, to which the +Captain replied, “You may, but I think it is of no use.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span></p> + +<p>About eight o’clock the carpenter received orders to see to +the boats! On board now there were the port cutter, the two +pinnaces, and the jolly boat, for two lifeboats and the starboard +cutter had been washed away previously. All the boats were +immediately plugged and made ready for sea, and bread and +water put in them. A little before ten o’clock the starboard +pinnace, which was of iron, and which would hold fifty persons, +was got ready for lowering, and John King with five others got +into her. Being lowered too fast, however, she swamped, and +sunk headforemost: the men were of course thrown with great +violence into the sea. After having been twelve seconds +under water, King was washed up to the rail of the ship, and +got on board, and the rest also were saved.</p> + +<p>Shortly after the foundering of the starboard pinnace, +the Captain entered the saloon, and said, by way of answer +to the mute appeal made to him on every face, “Ladies, +there is no hope for us, I am afraid. Nothing short of a +miracle can save us.” These were his exact words, and +Mr. Draper calmly replied to them by saying, “Then let us +pray!”</p> + +<p>At two o’clock on that wild, stormy afternoon the vessel +was sinking rapidly, and the channels were nearly level with +the water. Captain Martin now told Mr. Greenhill, that as +the port cutter was ready for lowering, he had better take the +command of her, and of as many as it would hold. As for +himself, he had no thought of leaving his ship; he would sink +with the <i>London</i> and her doomed passengers. The crew, as +they remembered the fate of the starboard pinnace a few +hours previously, were at first not over-anxious to set about +lowering the port cutter, and, for reasons that will appear in +the next chapter, the passengers generally made no attempts to +escape.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span></p> + +<p>John King, with a few other seamen, had already provisioned +the cutter with a bag of bread, a beaker with +about a quart of fresh water, and a few bottles of brandy, +which a bright and intelligent young midshipman, Walter +Edwards, greatly to his credit, as Mr. Traill the magistrate +observed at the Board of Trade Inquiry, managed to conceal +from the men after he had got on board. A few here and +there could not see an attempt being made to escape, notwithstanding +its seemingly hopeless character, without being +desirous of joining in it. This lad, who was on his first voyage +out, said, that after the starboard pinnace had been swamped, he +heard Captain Martin earnestly dissuading a lady, Mrs. Owen, +from going in the port-cutter boat. He himself was talking +with Mrs. Owen when the Captain came up to where they were. +She told him she intended going, and had asked one of the +men to take care of her and her little child, and the man had +promised to do so. Captain Martin, as if he knew of the +spirits that had been put on board the port cutter, told her +earnestly that there might be drunken seamen in the cutter, +and that she would only be exposing herself, perhaps, to a +painful and lingering death.</p> + +<p>“Captain Martin,” said the lad gently, “was quite calm and +composed. The only time I saw him give way was when he +told Mrs. Owen that there was no use in her going into the +boat: his feelings then quite overcame him, and he cried. All +the officers of the ship worked well. The sailing-master, Mr. +Harris, was working all day on Monday and Tuesday with his +coat off, and Mr. Grant also behaved exceedingly well. They +were all attentive to duty, and had not lost their mind up to +the time when the ship went down. All the passengers, you +could see, had death in their faces.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span></p> + +<p>“And what were your own thoughts, you brave young +Walter?”</p> + +<p>“I felt for leaving my mother, but I did not feel any fear +about going down. I felt some fear on the Monday.”</p> + +<p>“But you got accustomed to it, I suppose?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“What else do you remember?”</p> + +<p>“About twenty persons stood watching King and Daniell +getting the port cutter ready; but King and Daniell induced +them to go and try to launch the port pinnace. Both went +to help them to do so, but as soon as they got them engaged +at the pinnace, King and Daniell slipped away, and were +busy about their own boat again.”</p> + +<p>“And how did you get into the boat?”</p> + +<p>“I was in the mizen-shrouds. I asked King and Daniell +would they allow me in, and they said ‘Yes,’ and bid me +jump. I did so. The fall was about ten feet. Another midshipman +was in the next shrouds, but he was afraid to jump, +and he went down with the ship.”</p> + +<figure id="i_68" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 13em;"> + <img src="images/i_068.jpg" width="801" height="619" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII"><span id="toclink_63"></span>CHAPTER VIII.<br> + +<span class="subhead">THE ANCHOR WITHIN THE VEIL.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Why</span> was it, it is time to ask, that there was not a greater +clamouring after escape, both among passengers and crew? +Why was it, that when all on board knew that the ship was +doomed, and that at any moment the deep might open to +swallow them up, there was not that wild delirium and agony of +despair which we have been accustomed to see associated with +such considerations? To understand this in some measure, we +must take a glance at what had transpired in the saloon of the +vessel from the commencement of the voyage.</p> + +<p>The saloon of the <i>London</i> had been constructed with the +strictest regard to the comfort of her first-class passengers; +nor had their tastes been disregarded if they had any admiration +of what was elegant and chaste in workmanship. Here +there would be throughout the voyage a common meeting +ground for members of the same class amongst ladies and +gentlemen; and here religious services would be conducted on +the Sabbath, at which all on board might be present.</p> + +<p>On the first Sunday out there was a religious service, and +Dr. Woolley associated with Mr. Draper in conducting it. +Both these gentlemen were known to each other, and, although +belonging to different sections of the church, had many friends +in common, by some of whom, experienced in similar voyages, +the steamer in which they were to return to Australia, and the +cabins they had taken, were inspected and approved. From +Mr. Draper’s known characteristics it may be affirmed as a +certainty, although as yet no record of it has reached us, that +as, on their very first Sunday out, they encountered heavy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span> +weather,—a strong wind having sprung up and a heavy sea,—he +would find matter for religious instruction applicable to +their circumstances. And we cannot tell how largely the +divine blessing may have accompanied the religious services +of the day. If it be true that before the barren fig-tree is +cut down, the influences and means used to quicken it into +life and fruitfulness are more than doubled, may we not say +that He to whom all things were known, and who saw the end +from the beginning, vouchsafed a more than ordinary blessing +to the gospel declared to more than two hundred who were +spending their last Sabbath on earth?</p> + +<p>On Monday, there being no abatement in the violence of the +weather, but, on the contrary, the storm rather heightening in +force, the ladies and passengers generally would keep their +cabins, or meet for conversation in the saloon. On Monday +we know that many on board felt more fear than they did on +subsequent days when the first shock of the tempest had worn +away, and they had become accustomed to a hurricane that +never changed but for the worse. There were, we know, +several on board who had been professed Christians for years. +There was one who had, we believe, two brothers in +the ministry, and who was a spiritually-minded man himself. +There was another who was the son of a very distinguished +Minister of Christ, and who was himself a devoted +Christian. There was a young woman who had just left +service in Suffolk, and who had written a letter while on board +to a Christian friend, which went to shew the reality of her +religious life. There were many who were in the habit of +reading their Bibles daily.</p> + +<p>We mention these as types of the different classes composing +the passengers, and as illustrative of the fact, that +over the vessel there was spread a goodly number of persons<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span> +who were not ashamed to own their Lord, and who, +when they saw the clouds of distress gathering around +their fellow-passengers, would be able, and, as we have heard, +would be certain to be all the more earnest and useful +and kind in proportion to the distress they saw exhibited. +That during the fearful gale which sprung up on Monday +night there would be distress and fear of the direst kind we +make no doubt, but we gather comfort from the fact, that the +example and exhortations of the godly would not be without +their salutary and soothing influence.</p> + +<p>Directly, we hear nothing of Mr. Draper’s exertions until +Wednesday, from which time until the vessel went down he +was incessant in his ministrations; but, as we hear of groups +of children looking up with wonderment into the frightened +faces of their mothers, of ladies reading the Bible to each +other, and of individual passengers turning over its leaves as +if in search of passages that would be suitable to their condition, +of husbands sustaining wives by their constant presence,—we +may be sure that the man who was as loving to his +fellows as he was faithful to his Master had already lost all +thought of self in the work of imparting consolation and +instruction in the awful circumstances in which those especially +were placed who had now for the first time to begin +to think seriously of the claims of religion.</p> + +<p>“From all I have heard respecting him,” writes the Hon. +Mr. M<sup>c</sup>Arthur, “self seems to have been altogether lost sight +of. Nor does it appear that he paid any special attention to +his beloved wife, to whom he was most ardently and devotedly +attached, but his whole heart and mind seem to have been +engaged in the great work of endeavouring to lead those by +whom he was surrounded to flee for refuge to the only hope set +before them.” Nor though we do not hear so much of Dr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span> +Woolley as we do of Mr. Draper throughout the appalling +calamity, are we therefore to suppose that he was untrue to +his sacred calling, and to the loving instincts of a very kindly +heart. Had the facts of his life been before us, we should +doubtless have been able to speak of him with as much length +as we have of the Wesleyan preacher. One who evidently +knew and loved him has said, “Not much is said about him; +but we know in what manner he would die and help others +to die. His public career may be told in other ways, but +this one word is in remembrance of the man himself—the +good man—John Woolley.”</p> + +<p>On Wednesday, as we have said, the testimony concerning +Mr. Draper’s efforts, and the results attending them, is clear and +decisive. Prayer and religious instruction had become general, +and the saloon was transformed into a sanctuary, from whence +ascended the voice of supplication and weeping to Him who +was alone able to save. There were earnest wrestlings of soul +amongst those who felt themselves face to face either with heaven +or hell. It was hard to feel all at once that they <em>must</em> die, +that there could be no escape. It was hard for the newly-married +of a week only to feel that all the joys and hopes of +life must be ruthlessly terminated. It was hard for all who +had formed their plans for the future, or who had just left in +England those whom they held so dear, or who had brought +their little children out with them intending to settle in a new +home,—very hard for all to be told with a decisiveness which +there was no gainsaying, that they <em>must</em> die. And no wonder +that in the first burst of agony which this conviction brought +with it, many gathered round the Minister, crying, “Pray with +me, Mr. Draper. Pray for me, Mr. Draper.”</p> + +<p>And he <em>did</em> pray. Those who knew him have much to tell +of his power in prayer, of it being the effectual and fervent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span> +supplication of a man, “who was as sure of answer as if voices +from heaven told him he was heard.” Happy indeed the man, +who seeing death written in every face, and surrounded by the +weeping and conscience-stricken, had no time and no disposition +to care for himself, in the Christ-like work of caring for +others. As he drew nearer to Heaven, he had yet deeper +fellowship with the sufferings of that blessed Master he served, +who, while hanging upon the cross, had leisure to think of all +wants but His own. The Master saved others; Himself he +could not save.</p> + +<p>All Wednesday, as we have seen, the storm raged with +incessant fury. The passengers below heard and felt with +bated breath that tremendous sea break over the vessel by +which the cutter was stove in and the starboard lifeboat +carried away. The passengers in the saloon must have felt +the shock in all its terrible might, for it broke against their +quarter of the ship; and perhaps it was then, when all +expected that they were going down, that Mr. Draper was +heard praying, “O God, may those that are not converted +be converted now—hundreds of them.” This prayer went up +again and again during that stormy day.</p> + +<p>Again there was a crash overhead, and those below heard +to their dismay that the main hatchway had been swept away. +There was the rushing of water heard pouring down into the +engine room; there was the Captain’s voice heard shouting +through the storm, and the responsive cry of the crew. “Prepare +to meet your God. Prepare to meet your God!” This +was the solemn admonition of the minister throughout the +day and night.</p> + +<p>At twelve o’clock that night there was a prayer-meeting in +the saloon, which was attended by all who could be spared +from their duties on deck. A marvellous meeting indeed it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span> +must have been, in which strong cries and tears went up to +Him whose word was pledged that He would not turn away +his ear from the voice of prayer; that He would listen to the +cry of the afflicted.</p> + +<p>And did He not listen? Did He not answer? We would +humbly hope that the prayers presented were not the offspring of +mere natural terror, but the utterances of broken and contrite +spirits. On Thursday morning a wondrous calmness had +taken possession of all hearts. There were no agonizing +shrieks and screams, no delirious efforts to escape from their +doom. The prayer-meeting, and the prayers of the last three +days had done their work. Something stronger and holier +than love of mere natural life had taken possession of many +hearts. Their’s was the victory which had overcome death, +even their faith. Not even when the Captain entered the +saloon, and sadly announced that there was no hope, did +their calmness and resignation forsake them. “Let us +pray,” Mr. Draper said, and then they quietly prayed by +themselves. Shortly afterwards the minister said with great +kindliness, “Well, my friends, our Captain tells us there is no +hope, but the Great Captain above tells us there is hope, and +that we may all get safe to heaven.” Blessed truth! we have no +doubt that it went home to the hearts of many. Friends +began to take leave of friends, as if preparing for a long +journey. Husbands, wives, and children clung to each other +as if death itself should never divide them. And, clinging to +each other, and, we trust, to Christ, they calmly waited for +the sea to swallow them up, amid all the excitement of +launching the port cutter.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span></p> + +<figure id="i_75" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 36em;"> + <img src="images/i_075.jpg" width="2256" height="1396" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption">“CONSOLATION IN THE HOUR OF PERIL.”</figcaption> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX"><span id="toclink_71"></span>CHAPTER IX.<br> + +<span class="subhead">LAST WORDS.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">At</span> last, but with greater precaution than before, the port +cutter was launched, and got safely down. Six men were +in her, but as she rose and fell with the fury of the waves, +and every moment appeared likely to swamp, all felt the +propriety of the Captain’s words, that in such a sea there was +but little chance for the boat. The command of the boat +belonged to Mr. Greenhill, as second engineer, and without +loss of time he was anxious that all who had determined to +make one more desperate struggle for life should hasten from +the poor doomed ship. She was fast settling down to the +water’s edge; there was a fearful swirl of water around her +stern, and the cutter was in danger of being sucked down +into the whirlpool of the wreck. It was a leap for life in the +case of each one who jumped from the vessel, for the cutter +seemed no more than a piece of cork upon the tumultuous +billows, and no wonder that many paused and drew back in +horror from a leap to what seemed nothing short of instant +death.</p> + +<p>It was while the ship was fast filling with water, and death +every moment drew nearer, that some last words were spoken +that will never be forgotten by the survivors, or by those to +whom, in some instances, they were sent. What were Mr. +Draper’s last words? He had been exhorting and praying, +without intermission, for more than twelve hours before the +ship went down. Two of the survivors have a distinct remembrance +of him as they last saw him, about an hour before the +boat left. He was then in the saloon, and men and women<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span> +were still gathering around him, and saying, “O! Mr. Draper, +pray for me!” The last words these two survivors heard him +utter were these: “Well, my friends, our Captain tells us +there is no hope, but the Great Captain above tells us there is +hope that we may all get safe to heaven.”</p> + +<p>Another saw him a few minutes before the boat pushed off, +and his testimony is that Mr. Draper was then heard exclaiming, +“Prepare to meet your God.” The devoted minister +was calm and self-possessed, although the corpses of +women and children were floating over the deck. His wife +was with him: hand in hand they would go down together +into the deep, and together enter into the Father’s rest, in a +very few moments now. Patience a little longer. Mrs. Draper +was a sharer in her husband’s faith, calmness, and heroism; a +noble co-operator with him in all sweet deeds of self-sacrifice. +It moves one to tears to hear of her thoughtful care for others +in that last dread moment. A short time before the boat had +left the vessel she handed her rug to some of the sailors to +help to keep them warm. “But what will you do without it?” +“It will only be for a few minutes longer,” is said to have been +her reply. There was, in this last act of hers, the simple, +quiet expression of what her life had been for many years—a +life of inobtrusive effort for the good of others. In the +hour of awful peril, when it would have only been womanly +and natural for her to have claimed her husband’s care and +solicitude, we do not hear of her, for a single moment, +interrupting him in his sacred task. She herself, doubtless, +did what she could to help him in the work of imparting +spiritual instruction to those who were every moment expecting +death.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Draper was last seen, and that was a few +minutes before the boat was cut away from the sinking ship,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span> +he was heard speaking with deep emotion, but with the clear +strong voice which naturally belonged to the cheerful-hearted +man—and that he was right through life—saying these words; +“Those of you who are not converted, now is the time; not a +moment to be lost, for in a few minutes we shall all be in the +presence of our Judge.” And again the word sounded, +“Prepare to meet your God.” These were the last words +that he was heard to speak by any who escaped, but doubtless, +during the few minutes of life that yet remained, he continued +to comfort and exhort; and not, perhaps, until the cold waters +closed around him, did he give himself leisure to pray for himself, +perhaps saying, “Father, into thy hands I commend my +spirit.”</p> + +<p>Peace be to his sweet and precious memory! Although +no monument marks the spot in the vast cemetery of the +deep where his ashes repose, the place of his sepulture is +well known to Him by whose mysterious hand he was buried, +and in the appointed hour the sea shall give up its dead, and +he shall be found in his place at the end of the days. Death +to him had not come untimely. Thousands will bewail his +loss, because it is theirs, not his. For him to die was exceeding +gain. He had less of earth only to have more of +heaven. Through the tempest and the flood he found an +earlier passage to immortality than his love of labour in the +Master’s vineyard allowed him to anticipate; but it is all well, +because ordained by Him whose way is in the sea, whose path +is in the great waters, and whose footsteps are not known.</p> + +<p>There were other last words spoken while the little boat +was being held to the ship’s side with all the energy of +despair. Mr. Munro, a passenger, had made up his mind +to try the faint chance of escape which entering the cutter +afforded. All felt that escape was next to impossible,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span> +and Mr. Munro among the rest. Before leaving the vessel, +however, he went down to the cabin where were some friends +of his from Ballarat, Mr. and Mrs. Hickman and their +young family. It was a terrible task even to make the +proposition that he had come to make known: it was +that there was room in the boat for one! It was impossible +that the poor children could escape; not one of +them could be expected to take the fearful leap required; +nor could Mrs. Hickman; but her husband,—he could +escape, perhaps, if he would, and if the boat did live out +the fearful sea, he might be saved. Mr. Munro urged his +friend to avail himself of the chance.</p> + +<p>But no! Mr. Hickman had no need to look at his wife +and four little ones, around whom the water was rapidly +rising higher and higher, ere he gave the answer. The +water was then a considerable depth in the saloon on +the lee side, as the fond husband and tender father replied +to his friend’s entreaty thus:—“No! I promised my wife +and children to stay by them, and I will do so!” Brave +determination, one never to be regretted by him who made it, +never to be forgotten while tales of heroism have any power +left in them to move human hearts to enthusiasm and tears. +His choice, though a melancholy, was the right one, and his +friend acted kindly in not further attempting to divert him +from it.</p> + +<p>“Help me,” said Mr. Hickman, “to move the children to +the other side, out of the water.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Munro performed this last act of kindness for his friends: +they then shook hands. The last words of that fond father +were, “Good bye, Jack!”</p> + +<p>His friend then left him for ever. But will he ever +lose,—alas! alas! will any one who reads the story ever<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span> +lose sight of the vision of that loving father and mother, with +their four children, standing in a row to the windward side of +the saloon, and thus momentarily expecting death!</p> + +<p>Peace, poor weeping mother and devoted father! Peace, +ye dear helpless children! There is One on high whose +voice of love is mightier than the voice of many waters, and +we humbly hope that those parents, with many others in a +similar position of peril, passed through the sharpness of death +into His presence, who would smile upon them a welcome, +the first glance of which would for ever banish the remembrance +of pain, as they cried, “Behold us, and the children +thou hast given us!”</p> + +<p>But there were more last words yet. Upon seeing Mr. +Munro return alone, the men in the boat shouted to him, +“There is still room: fetch a lady!” Hearing this, he sprang +across a portion of the deck in quest of a lady whom he knew; +but not seeing her, and knowing that the moments were flying +fast, he said to a young girl, “Will you go?” She appeared +willing to do so, and Mr. Munro immediately caught her in +his arms, and hurried with her to the bulwarks; but when she +looked over and saw the distance she had to leap, she said, in +an agony of despair, “Oh, I cannot do that!”</p> + +<p>The boat seemed every moment as if it would go down amid +the terrific roll of the sea, and she drew back in affright from +the awful gulf that appeared yawning to receive her. Mr. +Munro was obliged to drop his hapless burden, and to leave +the young creature on the deck, while he himself leaped from +the bulwarks into the rolling boat below.</p> + +<p>There was one young man on board, in whose spiritual welfare +a clergyman in the suburbs of London had taken deep +interest before he embarked on his fatal voyage. The young +man had remained undecided for Christ, notwithstanding all<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span> +entreaties and appeals; but ere he went on board the <i>London</i> +his friend the clergyman had implored him to offer up daily a +prayer which he had given him. Neither, perhaps, could have +possibly dreamed of the circumstances of peril under which +that prayer would come to be used. There came now some +last words from that young man. Amid the raging of the +storm, he shouted out to one who was in the boat—“If ever +you get safe to land, tell Mr. —— (mentioning the clergyman’s +name) that the prayer he gave me I have used every day +since; and that now I can say of Christ, ‘My Beloved is mine, +and I am His.’” These were <em>his</em> last words; but how much +happier—brief though they were—have they made many a +Christian heart, telling, as we humbly hope they do, that the +speaker had escaped the second death, and that the haven of +eternal rest was in sight.</p> + +<p>There was a young girl on board whose last words were not +spoken, but written. Was she the one of whom we read as +standing bareheaded in the wild storm, with holy resignation +depicted in every feature? She hurriedly wrote a few words on +a slip of paper, and said to one who was about to leap into the +boat, “Give this to my mother.” Her last wish was sacredly +obeyed, and there came to a mourning mother this serene message +from one who had gone down in a stormy sea—“Dear +mother, you must not grieve for me: I am going to Jesus.”</p> + +<p>Miss Brooker, of Pimlico, spoke her last words, and they +were those of quiet resignation to the will of God. We hear +of her, during those days and nights of fearful suspense, doing +what she could to soothe a fellow-passenger whose mind at +times seemed on the very verge of delirium, the absence of +which among the passengers generally, while it is matter of +devoutest gratitude, is also matter of greatest wonder,—unless +explained by the presence of Him who walketh upon the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span> +wings of the wind, and who, in answer to prayer, was shedding +abroad in many hearts a tranquillity so deep and hallowed +as to be beyond the reach of the wildest tempest. As the end +drew rapidly near, Miss Brooker clasped her hands, and was +heard to say, as if to herself,—but, oh! there was One +by that heard all that was said during that awful last hour,—“Well, +I have done all that I could; I can do no more!”</p> + +<p>Nothing now, except trust, and hope for the life beyond +this troubled one. Nothing now, but to make the most of +those exhortations which, with trumpet-clearness, rise every +now and then above the howling of the gale—“There is hope +that we may <span class="allsmcap">ALL</span> get safe to heaven. Those of you who are +not converted, now is the time: not a moment to be lost, for +in a few minutes we shall all be in the presence of our Judge.”</p> + +<p>There were more last words still, and they were those of +Mr. G. V. Brooke. Only a few days before,—on the 23rd of +December,—he had sustained the character of Richard the +Third. The walls were not placarded with the announcement, +“The last appearance of Mr. G. V. Brooke upon any stage,” +but they might have been so; and how would the hundreds +who listened to his farewell address that night have felt, +could they have caught the double meaning which the +opening sentences of that address contained, at least as we +read it now?</p> + +<p>The actor was in painful ill-health, and his subsequent +heroism on board the foundering <i>London</i> derives additional +interest from the fact. His last words at Belfast were these:—“<em>Ladies +and Gentlemen, with this night finishes my professional +career in Belfast for a long, very long time to come.</em> I fervently +trust, by the favour of the One Providence, that I may +at some distant time be enabled to return to a town which I, +in a measure, look on as my home, where I may professionally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span> +or unprofessionally, mingle with my friends in Belfast again. +I now take an affectionate farewell of you all, wishing from my +heart continued prosperity to this magnificent city.”</p> + +<p>These were his last words on any stage. A few days later, +and he was bearing his part in no mimic tragedy,—in a conflict +which, in its way, was far more appalling than the battle +of Bosworth Field in which Richard fell. As we watch the +closing scene of the poor actor’s life, one cannot have a heart +and remain unmoved or silent in the presence of the man +who, in weak health and with painful hoarseness, did the +work of many men combined during those despairing days. +Did the hundreds who listened to him in Belfast catch any +prophetic hint in the mimic agony with which he delivered the +death speech of Richard?</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“I have set my life upon a cast,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And I will stand the hazard of the die!”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>The time had come, when, in reality, there was no earthly +means of escape, and, seeing that all his exertions were useless, +he rested upon one of the half-doors of the companion, +and, bareheaded to the storm, gave himself up to reflection. +His last words to man were to the steward, “If you succeed +in saving yourself, give my farewell to the people of Melbourne;” +but who shall say what words were addressed to Him +who was alone able to deliver, during those four hours in which +he was observed to continue in a musing attitude.</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, there were last words spoken, which, +upon being repeated by the survivor to whom they were +addressed, will doubtless carry a value which, had the speaker +known, would much have soothed him during his closing +hours of life. A son was on board the <i>London</i>, who, with +death staring him in the face, thought tenderly of the old<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span> +man his father, whose declining years would have been rendered +all the happier for possessing money that must now, as +the speaker thought, sink with him, and be lost. Among the +second cabin passengers were two, Mr. Munro and Mr. Eastwood, +who had been acquainted previous to the voyage. As +the little boat was being filled with all it could hold, Eastwood, +addressing his fellow-passenger, said, “Well, Jack, I +think we are going to go.” “I think we are, Eastwood.” +“Well, we cannot help it,” the other went on. “There’s only +one thing I regret about it: of a draft for 500<i>l.</i> on the Bank +of Victoria, Ballarat, I only received 20<i>l.</i>, which I gave to the +Captain, in the office of Money Wigram and Co. I should +have liked my poor father to have got the balance.” These +were the last words of a son, who soon after perished in the +waves, but his friend escaped, remembering exactly the words +which filial tenderness had inspired.</p> + +<p>There were some last words spoken which we cannot record, +words of the sufferers to each other, and words addressed +to Him whose ear is never heavy to the cry of distress. Husbands +and wives, parents and children, friends and acquaintances,—what +words of farewell passed amongst these! What +last words of prayer mingled even with the sighs of death! +With what tender compassion and sympathy have those been +thought of whose <em>heroic actions</em> on board the doomed ship +were the last words that will be sacredly cherished in the loving +memory of those who knew them. The picture of that brave +young officer, Mr. Angell, standing to his post to the last at +the donkey-engine, which was used in working the pumps, +calmly keeping there while the billows thundered their spray +around him, and going down into the dark whirling water +with his hands still on the engine;—this is a picture which no +artist, however gifted, can paint strong and beautiful enough<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span> +for us. It was his last sermon—and how eloquent was it—to +all the young officers of our Navy upon a sense of duty, +making him who possesses it superior to all thoughts of +danger.</p> + +<p>There was something, too, inexpressibly touching in the incident +of that aged couple who had three children with them, +who had been wrecked already twice in their attempting to get +to Melbourne, now being on board the sinking ship, and being +swept overboard before the final hour came. Among the passengers, +also, we read of two stout old people who had become +favourites on board, and who had been sent for by an only +son. The son will expect them at Melbourne: alas! how many +will be expected there who will never arrive thither. One’s +heart quivers in anticipation of the sorrow into which multitudes +will be plunged. When the poor aged couple knew that +there was no chance of escape, they simply took each other by +the hand, and went down into the cabin to die together.</p> + +<p>But come there no last words from the gallant Captain, +who, since Sunday, has had no sleep, and who has not even +changed his clothes? Where is he while farewells are being +exchanged, while the little boat is being filled with all it can +hold, and while his beautiful vessel, which once seemed to +walk the waters like a thing of life, is so fast filling, that her +bulwarks nearly touch the water?</p> + +<p>We catch glimpses of him several times while the boat is +being lowered, and while it is being filled with sixteen of the +crew and three passengers, and at all times we see him at the +post of duty, and doing his best. About an hour, perhaps, +before the getting away of the boat from the ship, Mr. Jones, +the chief engineer, was between decks near the engine-room. +The ship was then labouring in the trough of the sea, and was +in a most disabled condition. He ran up between decks, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span> +met Captain Martin for the last time, who was going in the +direction of the saloon.</p> + +<p>“Well, Mr. Jones, how do you feel?” was his question.</p> + +<p>“Not well, Sir,” was the reply: “I took it that he referred +to my condition of mind and not to the accident I had met +with. I saw no more of him after that. I saw nothing but +the ship going down after that. When I left the ship the +passengers had given up all hope, but there was a remarkable +composure amongst them, and no loud sounds to be heard. I +heard voices engaged in preaching and praying.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Jones was the last man who leaped into the boat: he +leaped and got into her as she rose with the sea, and the sea rose +so high that he had scarcely any distance to jump from the gunwale. +Before, however, the first engineer leaped into the boat +it had already been gradually and carefully filled, as we have +seen, with members of the crew and with three passengers. Mr. +Greenhill, the second engineer, was supposed, from his position, +to be officer of the cutter, and he took command of her. “Get +into the boat,” the Captain had said among his last words; “there +is not much chance for the boat; there is none for the ship. +Your duty is done; mine is to remain here. Get in and take +command of the few it will hold.” His command had been +obeyed, and now the only chance for the nineteen in the boat +was to get as quickly away from the ship as possible, for the +ship was being washed over to the boat, and she was in great +danger of being sucked down, as we have said, with the +sinking vessel. Before pushing off, the men in the boat +shouted to the Captain to join them.</p> + +<p>“No,” he replied: “I will go down with the passengers. Your +course is E.N.E. to Brest, and”—throwing them a compass—“I +wish you God speed, and safe to land.”</p> + +<p>These were the last words the survivors heard fall from the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span> +lips of John Bohun Martin; but at that moment there came a +fearful last word from the deck of the sinking vessel. A +lady, with horror on every feature, shrieked out most piteously, +“A thousand guineas if you will take me in.”</p> + +<p>But if she had offered the whole world there could have +been no response to her cry. The boat, which had been hastily +cut away, was already some yards distant, and to return would +have been certain death to all, who, as it was, had not in their +own minds the slightest hope of escaping. About five minutes +afterwards, and when they had got eighty or ninety +yards, they looked towards the ship, and saw that she was +going down stern foremost. The wind at this time was +raging so violently that the men in the boat could not hear +each other when eagerly shouting. It was with a kind +of dumb wonderment that they saw what transpired. As +the ship sunk it was seen that all on deck were driven forward, +not by water, but by a tremendous and overpowering rush +of air from below, which, as it escaped through the deck as +well as the hatches, impelled all on deck forward with violence, +and their dreadful struggle must have been, therefore, +soon over!</p> + +<p>In a single moment the men in the boat seemed to take +in at a glance all that transpired on board. They saw +the stem of the vessel rise so high, that her keel was +completely out of water as far as the foremast. The +boatswain, the butcher, the baker, and the purser’s mate, it is +said, had resolved to attempt their escape in the remaining +boat over the cuddy, which was already provisioned and +launched; but no sooner were these men ready to put off, than +the sinking vessel sank beneath them, making, in her descent, +a very whirlpool of angry and confounding waters, and the +escaping ones in the cutter saw their comrades swallowed up<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span> +quickly and disappear with the lost ship. They saw young +Angell going down while standing at his old post of duty: +for a moment they saw two men with life-belts struggling +amid mountains of water: they rose with the waves, and then +descended into the deep, deep grave which the sea formed for +them, and then not a trace of men or of ship was to be seen! +The gale thundered so furiously, that if there was a cry from the +sinking ship, it was not heard. Once more to the bottom of the +Bay of Biscay had gone a noble ship and valuable cargo; but +O! saddest of all, more than two hundred forms, that a +few days before had been seen sitting in mirth and friendliness +around many an English fireside, had gone down too. And +once more the billows rolled on, curling their monstrous heads, +as if in contempt of the beings who would seek to master +them when once they rose in their terrible might and +majesty.</p> + +<figure id="i_80" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 13em;"> + <img src="images/i_080.jpg" width="802" height="746" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X"><span id="toclink_84"></span>CHAPTER X.<br> + +<span class="subhead">THE LIGHT BEHIND THE CLOUD.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Was</span> there such a light? It was one of the saddest of calamities, +desolating at a stroke many a bright home, and +nipping in the bud some of the fondest hopes and purposes. +Was there such a light? The disaster swept away two +hundred and twenty lives, around which many other lives +twined like the gentle tendrils of a vine, and who will, +perhaps, wither now that the props to which they sweetly +clung have been torn ruthlessly away.</p> + +<p>Was there such a light? The aged and the young went +down together into the same grave. The infant child of four +months old was dashed far away from the sinking mother’s +breast, and heroism of the loftiest type received no higher reward +than the dullest, basest cowardice.</p> + +<p>Was there such a light? The refined scholar, for whom his +pupils wait—the tender father, for whom a widow and six +children, with only slender means for their support, anxiously +look out—the gently strong John Woolley has gone down into +the deep, and the sea has taken no more account of his worth +and power than it has of the fool.</p> + +<p>Was there such a light? Captain Martin has gone; the man +who fearlessly traversed the ocean for years, who had often +smiled at danger, and had gone between Melbourne and London +until the path was as clear to him as the turnpike-road to +the waggoner. The gentle, courageous good man will never +more be greeted by his relatives, and the wide circle of friends +who loved him will see him no more.</p> + +<p>Was there such a light? Daniel Draper is lost to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span> +church and to his only son; his brethren in the ministry will +no longer be able to depend upon his wise suggestions; and +souls unnumbered are still white unto harvest, while the +successful reaper suddenly drops his sickle, and will gather +in no more sheaves.</p> + +<p>Was there such a light? and in what quarter of the heavens +did it glow behind the great darkness in which the good ship +went down into the whirlpool of destruction with 220 lives on +board?</p> + +<p>There was such a light, and we have no doubt of its beaming +over this dark catastrophe still,—the light which shines +through the words,</p> + +<p class="p1 b1 center"> +<span class="smcap">God is love</span>. +</p> + +<p>That those who now most need the light of this truth to +guide them will see even the faintest glimmering of it, we +cannot say; but when the blindness occasioned by the smart +of tears has cleared away, we are sure, that if they will look up +there will be the truth mildly shining behind the calamity, +dark though it be. The mystery, appalling though it be, can, +in this world, receive no truer solution, but a lifetime may +pass away without our even having learnt the letters by which +the truth is to be slowly spelt out.</p> + +<p>But while the mystery remains, the calamity loses much of +its horror, if we lay to heart the truth of the over-ruling +providence of God. “It is appointed unto man once to die,” +and the Omnipotent one has ordained the place, the time, the +circumstances. Good and faithful servants were in the ship, +and the summons that told them their way unto the Lord’s +presence was through the deep, brooked no delay; but the road +was not half so strange to them as it seems to us. Before<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span> +their eyes a light was shining which is hidden from our view, +and by it they were conducted to their Father’s house as +serenely as if they had breathed their last on downy pillows. +Down into the great deep they plunged, and then?</p> + +<p>In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they had left their +sea-soaked raiment behind them, and they were at rest amid +the blessed calm on which no tempest shall ever, ever, ever +break. A rich feast was awaiting their arrival; bright and +happy faces were around the board to welcome the guests who +had come through the flood and tempest; and God Himself +wiped away all tears from off all faces, and the voice of eternal +love thrilled their hearts as it whispered, “There shall be no +<em>more</em> death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be +any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”</p> + +<p>Oh! could we think a little more of this scene beyond the +flood, and less of the terrible shipwreck, we should assuredly +catch glimpses of the light behind the cloud. From the eternal +shore the voices of the faithful reach our world, saying, +“Men of England, men of Melbourne, weep not for us, for +we have all got safe to land; and the land is good, and, behold +we were not told the half concerning it. See to it, that ye prepare +to follow us in the way our Father sees best.”</p> + +<p>But through the sea? Yes, for the sea is his, and He made +it; and God may use it as He did in the case before us, +not as a minister of wrath, but of mercy, to conduct his +chosen ones to Himself.</p> + +<p>But through all the agony which preceded the struggle, and +through such a struggle?</p> + +<p>Yes; if that too be the Divine will, for who was it that for +our sakes chose the saddest and most lingering of deaths? +and who, in the anguish of a fast breaking heart, cried,“My +God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span></p> + +<p>But let us say that friends and relations are in danger of +making by far too much of the agony, and not enough of the +heavenly help that came to the shipwrecked ones, to enable +them “to suffer and be strong.”</p> + +<p>We believe in the superiority of Divine grace to the mere +natural feeling of pain and anguish, and that when Divine +strength nerves the soul, the keenest physical tortures are all +outside things. The martyrs of old could without pretence +woo the flames that consumed them, clothe themselves +cheerfully as with a garment of fire; and while the chain +around him grew red hot, one could talk of his dying thus, +as if he were on a bed of roses! And He who for some +inscrutable but all-wise and loving purpose permitted the +calamity of the shipwreck, may have thus supported his +servants, and deprived them of agony as He had previously +deprived them of fear—the greater agony of the two.</p> + +<p>Is there not also a light behind the cloud, when the fact is +called to mind how faithfully the gospel was preached, and +how fervently most of those on board engaged in acts of +devotion? There have been scenes of horror on board shipwrecked +vessels which baffle all description, when it has +been made known that the ship must go down. Then, shouts +of cursing, despair, and drunken revelry have been heard +above the fury of the gale, and mocked the very groans of the +dying.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Then rose from sea to sea the wild farewell,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>But on board the sinking <i>London</i>, amidst the storm, the +gospel was preached, earnest prayers presented, the Bible +read, and anxiety for the soul experienced. All as yet at +least were in the place of hope on which the gospel ladder was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span> +planted, the top whereof touched heaven. They had not +passed away to the region where faith would be impossible, +and from whence there could be no escape. The way of +salvation was singly pointed out to them again and again. +They were not, we may be sure, burdened with details and +theories, but the simple yet glorious truth was proclaimed, +“Here is a Saviour waiting to save you, believe in Him and be +saved. You are a sinner, but He died for sinners; you are +the very one He came to seek; trust yourself entirely to Him; +turn with a holy hatred and grief from your sins, and rely +upon his promise to save you, if you only this moment, with +all your heart, ask Him to do so.”</p> + +<p>And we may believe, and we ought to believe, that the +gospel does not only <em>offer</em> immediate salvation, but that Christ +does grant it to every man who penitently asks His help. The +gospel preached during the storm was not, “Repent and believe +the gospel, and you shall be saved at some future day;” the +promise was, “You shall be saved <em>now</em>, and this day, though +thy body may go to the bottom of the sea, thou shalt be +with Christ in Paradise.” Poor sinking one, only believe, and +thou shalt see the glory of God.</p> + +<p>There is light behind the cloud indeed, in the remembrance +that such a gospel was proclaimed hour by hour; and in the +conviction we also cherish that many believed it, gave themselves +up to the influence of its promises and encouragements, +and were so filled with faith in Him who had died to put away +their sins and open the kingdom of heaven to them, that they +were not afraid to die, seeing not death but heaven before +them.</p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indentq">“Where all the ship’s company meet,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Who sailed with the Saviour beneath;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With shouting each other they greet,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And triumph o’er trouble and death.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span> + <div class="verse indent0">The voyage of life’s at an end,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The mortal affliction is past,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The age that in heaven they spend,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">For ever and ever shall last.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +<p>“And so,” doubtless it will be said, “you want to make +them all religious, before the ship went down?” We would, +indeed, kind reader, that we could cherish this hope concerning +all, for then the light behind the cloud would increase in +brightness every day. As sinful men opposed to God we +would have had all on board believers in the Great Reconciler, +who can make both one, and fill the souls of those who trust +Him with the most blessed assurance that there is no longer +any gulf of separation between them. Where there is this +faith there is no fear, neither of dying, nor of what lies beyond +death.</p> + +<p>And, reader, in the hour that is before thee, as surely as it +was before those that went down in the Bay of Biscay, it is +only this faith in Christ that can impart courageous strength +to thine own spirit, and solid consolation to the mourners who +will presently bewail thee gone. If thou hast it, thou wilt go +thy journey undismayed, while the heaven, to which thou art +gone will shine brightly behind the cloud, and tell those who +grieve thine absence most, that they need not sorrow as those +who have no hope.</p> + +<figure id="i_95" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 8em;"> + <img src="images/i_095.jpg" width="486" height="458" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI"><span id="toclink_90"></span>CHAPTER XI.<br> + +<span class="subhead">THE ESCAPE.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Nineteen</span> persons had entered the port cutter. These consisted +of the second and third engineers, one fireman, the +boatswain’s mate, the quartermaster, the carpenter’s mate, the +steward, the boatswain’s boy, five able seamen, and three +passengers. They had received their course from the now +drowned Captain—N.N.E. to Brest, which was 190 miles +distant, and they had compasses on board. Under the direction +of King, the men agreed, that whatever might happen +they would sit immoveable, except when pulling at the oars. +Two worked at each oar, and they ran before the sea. Both +Daniell and King deserve the highest praise for their skill in +steering the feeble craft over the raging waters, but it was +pleasant to find them both modest and seamanlike in all they +said about it.</p> + +<p>“I believe you took charge of the boat, didn’t you, Daniell?”</p> + +<p>“Well, I pulled an oar sometimes, and sometimes steered. +I took no particular charge of the boat, but I gave my opinion +and advice now and then.”</p> + +<p>“But you took a little of the lead?”</p> + +<p>“Well, I did. Others also gave their opinion.”</p> + +<p>Among the “others” who gave counsel was John King.</p> + +<p>“How did you manage to steer?”</p> + +<p>“Chiefly by the ‘pointers’ to the N.E.”</p> + +<figure id="i_97" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 23em;"> + <img src="images/i_097.jpg" width="1416" height="1988" alt=""> + <figcaption class="caption">JOHN KING.</figcaption> +</figure> + +<p>It was a fearful struggle for life that the brave seamen now +engaged in, as, with parched lips and every nerve strained to +its highest pitch of tension, they rose and fell with the green<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span> +waves still running mountains high. It seemed almost +hopeless to attempt to withstand any longer the fury of the +sea, which broke over them in angry surges. As we have +said, they had but a quart of water on board, and the +bottles of spirits. It was a fortunate thing that young +Edwards succeeded in getting hold of these and concealing +them, for the probability is, that had the seamen given way +to drink in their then excited state, raving delirium would +have set in, and cutter and crew would soon have been at the +bottom. The lad shall tell his own story, and he is worthy of +lasting honour and remembrance for his part in it.</p> + +<p>“Daniell agreed to be our hammock man. He sat by me +and was pulling the bow-oar. There was a bag of biscuits +weighing two cwt., two bottles of brandy, and two of champagne, +some turnips and carrots, in the boat. There was +some water also on board, but it was thrown out. I picked up +three of the bottles and put them under my coat. Mr. Greenhill +and Daniell knew I had them, but the others did not.”</p> + +<p>“Your conduct was very commendable,” said Mr. Traill, +“and you did quite right in trying to keep the bottles of spirit +away from the men. You have begun your career unfortunately, +but I hope you may hereafter succeed as you deserve +to do.”</p> + +<p>Thursday night came on, and the boat still drifted before +the wind, and about three o’clock the next morning a regular +green sea broke over them and nearly half filled the boat. +One of the passengers baled out the water constantly, and +after the green sea came in the water was baled out with a +bucket and cans. Before daylight, and as the moon rose, the +men saw a vessel close alongside. They hailed her with all +their might, and were heard by those on board; but as they +could present no light they could not be seen, although they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span> +could see the ship tacking about for an hour trying to find +them. The search was fruitless, and to their utter disappointment +the ship was lost sight of. The men adhered to their +course, and about nine o’clock sighted two vessels, but could +not get near them on account of the cross seas. They rowed +for one of them, however, for nearly five hours, and upon +getting within hail she proved to be an Italian barque, the +<i>Marianople</i>. The boat was very near filling when they were +within twenty yards of her. They were struck by a heavy +squall, so that all in the boat gave themselves up for lost. +In consequence of the excitement on board—who can wonder +at it?—they did not succeed in clearing one of the seas; but +by only one of the men moving in the boat to bale her out, +they were enabled to bale her clear, and a log line being +thrown them from the barque, one by one they were drawn +up on deck! The young midshipman Edwards was drawn on +board by men who caught him by the collar of his coat.</p> + +<p>The shipwrecked were in a most benumbed and perishing +state, but the master of the barque, Captain Cavasa, treated +them with the greatest kindness. The generous Italian could +speak but little English, but his deeds have spoken so forcibly +that Englishmen will be long before they forget his kind-heartedness. +By his orders the men were stripped and +rubbed, and clad in fresh warm garments. The good captain +killed a turkey for them, besides providing tea and soup, and +setting apart for them warm beds. After treating them with +every kindness, he landed them at Falmouth, from which +port the story of their marvellous escape, and the loss of so +many precious lives in the <i>London</i>, flashed with the speed of +the telegraph throughout the length and breadth of the land, +producing everywhere grief and consternation unspeakable.</p> + +<p>The following is the list of those <span class="locked">saved:—</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span></p> + +<p>John Greenhill, engineer; John Jones, second engineer; +John Armour, third engineer; Thomas Brown, fireman; W. +M. Edwards, midshipman; D. T. Smith, boatswain’s mate; +Wm. Daniell, quartermaster; John King, Benjamin Shield, +Richard Lewis, James Gough, Edwin Quin, William +Grimes, seamen; A. G. White, boatswain’s boy; William +Hart, Carpenter’s mate; Edward Gardner, second-class +steward; D. G. Main, passenger; John Munro, passenger; +J. E. Wilson, passenger.</p> + +<p>It is a remarkable fact, moreover, that the <i>London</i> is the +first ship belonging to the famous house of Money Wigram +and Sons to which any serious casualty has occurred. In a +century’s experience, Messrs. Wigram have enjoyed a perfect +immunity from loss, with the single exception of the <i>True +Briton</i>, which belonged to a former generation of the firm, +and foundered early in the present century in the same +fatal bay.</p> + +<p>But in a chapter treating of those who escaped from the +wreck of the <i>London</i>, those must not be forgotten who +narrowly escaped the doom which fell upon so many in the +Bay of Biscay.</p> + +<p>Some hair-breadth escapes in connection with this disaster +are well known. A lady who was desirous of proceeding from +Plymouth with her family to Melbourne by the <i>London</i>, had +made repeated pressing applications to the owner’s agents at +Plymouth, and the Captain had been consulted, but, fortunately +for the applicant, had declared that his cabins were so full +that he could not possibly accommodate her, a result that, at +that time, caused her much disappointment. A second-class +male passenger was so alarmed at the rough weather which +the <i>London</i> encountered on her way down to Plymouth, that +immediately on her arrival at that port he came ashore,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span> +resigned his passage, and went back to his home, thus unwittingly +saving his life. A young man, as the result of some +family quarrel, left his home, and took a passage by the +<i>London</i>. He was advertised for, and importuned to return, +his friends being unaware of his whereabouts. Messengers +were sent down to Plymouth, and an influential ship’s broker +in the town was employed to intercept him should he attempt +to sail thence. Fortunately he was detected amongst the +passengers of the <i>London</i>, and his family communicated with +by the broker, the result of which was that a brother of the +young man came down to Plymouth, and persuaded the would-be +emigrant to forego his voyage.</p> + +<p>May those who escaped the voyage by the doomed vessel, +as well as those who got safe to land from the wreck, feel the +solemnity of that life which has thus been so marvellously +rescued from a watery grave.</p> + +<figure id="i_102" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 13em;"> + <img src="images/i_102.jpg" width="802" height="716" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII"><span id="toclink_97"></span>CHAPTER XII.<br> + +<span class="subhead">THINGS REMEMBERED IN THE STORM.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">A few</span> things were remembered in the storm, to which, when +we have called the reader’s attention, our task is ended. +<span class="smcap">The Bible</span> was read in the storm. Doubtless the passengers +had with them many books to relieve the tedium of +a long voyage, but good as these books might have been, it +was not from these that they sought to derive instruction and +comfort in the hour of peril. They opened their Bibles, +many of them were seen in groups reading it together, or +sitting by themselves turning over its pages, as if in search after +some passage which had been forgotten, and the meaning of +which was specially important then. They read the Bible +during the most solemn hour of their existence, and when +they knew that their moments were numbered, and whilst in +the midst of a scene which its own pages have so magnificently +described.</p> + +<p>“They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business +in the great waters; these see the works of the Lord, and His +wonders in the deep. For he commandeth and raiseth the +stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They +mount up to heaven, they go down again to the depths; +their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and +fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ +end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and +He bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the +storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are +they glad because they be quiet; so He bringeth them unto +their desired haven.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span></p> + +<p>That storm-tossed vessel, with her sinking passengers, has +furnished no insignificant testimony to the preciousness of +the Book which too many criticise as if it were the foe and +not the friend of humanity. The picture of those passengers +going down with their Bibles in their hands will be a sweeter +one for the memory to treasure, than all the results of +anatomical critics. And Oh surely! it will teach its lessons to +those who are content to live in the neglect of, or in direct +opposition to, the Book which in such an hour was appealed to, +and not in vain.</p> + +<p>Nor must it be forgotten that, on board the sinking <i>London</i>, +the passengers attached the greatest possible importance to +prayer. They prayed for themselves, and they besought an +interest in the intercessions of others. During those wasting +days and nights of lingering suspense they continued in +prayer: it was their only comfort, and they went down into +the deep with the voice of supplication upon their lips. Does +not this teach its own solemn lesson to the prayerless who +may read these pages? Does it not tell of a value in prayer +beyond all the arguments that may be used against it, or even +in favour of it? Those brave men and women, praying bareheaded +to the storm, and going down into the wild waves +calmly trusting in God’s goodness still;—shall not this last +touching act of theirs convey an appeal to the prayerless +which there can be no resisting? Shall it not say in tones +of entreaty that cannot be withstood, “Seek ye the Lord +while He may be found, call ye upon Him while he is near?” +Close to your heart with its deepest needs there stands a +throne of mercy from which every imaginable good can be +obtained: turn to that throne, be you in lane, highway, or open +street, when this commandment reaches you, and seek salvation +in the name of Christ, and you shall not seek in vain.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span></p> + +<p>Finally, on board the sinking <i>London</i>, the greatest attention +was paid to a preached gospel. A preacher is not unfrequently +heard enforcing his appeals to the undecided by the +solemn words, “I speak as a dying man to dying men.” In +Mr. Draper’s case the words were literally true, and they had +all the pathos and hold of last words that might at any +moment be stopped by the overwhelming flood: and how the +passengers listened! How important seemed every word then +with either heaven or hell coming nearer and nearer with +every inch of water rising in the engine-room!</p> + +<p>Ah! could those on land, and out of the reach, as they +think, of such a calamity as shipwreck, but feel, that slowly yet +surely up to them is advancing the hour in which all earthly +interests will be as nothing, and the concerns of the soul all +important, how would they now value the privilege of a +preached gospel, and every instrumentality by which they can +learn more of themselves and of spiritual things! A little +while, and the last hour of every one who reads these lines +will have come, and will be felt to be the last. How wilt +thou meet it, reader?</p> + +<p>It has been said, that in that last hour, no matter how aged +the dying one, the memory awakes to its keenest power, and +there passes before the mind a vivid diorama of all life’s doings. +Events and circumstances seemingly long buried, suddenly +leap into life, and it well nigh startles one to listen to the +remembrances that come and go through the fast-darkening +chambers of the brain. Slowly dying on the pillow before +us, lies one whose head is silent with age, and the grey dawn +of an eternal morning is stealing over his features; but +glancing brightly through the haze of death, there come to +him visions of his long, long past; of the home of his childhood, +of the bride of his youth, of the events of his riper age<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span> +and manhood, until in a single hour he seems to live all his +life over again.</p> + +<p>Oh! it will be sad to remember, in such an hour, a neglected +Bible, a throne of grace despised, and a gospel of mercy refused. +It will be sad to remember, that even such a calamity +as the wreck of the <i>London</i> produced no serious impression, +and no turning of the head towards heaven. If the things +which the sinking passengers remembered during the storm +are remembered by you now,—if their deep importance is laid +to heart by all whose feelings have been touched by the disaster,—then, +terrible though it has been, it will not have occurred +in vain. It will have come in mercy to those who, in circumstances +of fancied security, are not prepared to die. To such +the voice of the sinking minister crying, even from the drowning +wave, “Prepare to meet your God,” will not have come in +vain.</p> + +<p class="p2 b2 center wspace">THE END.</p> + +<figure id="i_106" class="figcenter" style="max-width: 7em;"> + <img src="images/i_106.jpg" width="429" height="473" alt=""> +</figure> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX"><span id="toclink_101"></span>APPENDIX.</h2> +</div> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">The</span> narrative which we have here given of the Wreck of +the <i>London</i> was written pending the inquiry instituted by +the Board of Trade to arrive, if possible, at the cause of the +melancholy catastrophe. It is to be regretted that the inquiry, +though it lasted many days, has not added much to the information +that was given to the public by the survivors upon +their landing at Plymouth. No discovery has been made as +to the real cause which brought about the melancholy event, +although it is hardly possible to conceive any question of more +serious importance to the public mind. The evidence given +at the inquiry was by no means satisfactory. On the one +hand, those directly connected with the owners gave their +evidence, and on the other hand, there was the testimony of +the Emigration Inspectors who had passed the ship, and who +could not be expected to stultify themselves by a new judgment +of her seaworthiness. But against this testimony of ship-builders +and inspectors has been placed the evidence of those +who declare that the ship was in disgracefully bad trim, and, +as will be seen among the slips that were picked up in bottles +that were cast away on the morning of the wreck, there was +one which says that the vessel was too heavily laden. Great +dissatisfaction has been expressed, and it has even been made a +subject of discussion in the House of Commons, that Mr. Traill, +the magistrate before whom the Board-of-Trade inquiry was +conducted, did not permit Counsel to cross-examine witnesses +on behalf of those who have lost relatives: but it seems that +there really was no power under the Act of Parliament to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span> +admit of such cross-examination. The tonnage, measurement, +and steam-power of the ship, together with the names of her +owners, the nature and quantity of her cargo, were stated +before the Court. We heard again the story of her voyage +from the Docks to Gravesend, and from Gravesend to Plymouth, +and from Plymouth to the Bay of Biscay. There +was no charge made against Captain Martin, and no one +dreamed of imputing negligence or incapacity to so experienced +a seaman. The evidence of the official surveyors +and other experts examined by the Court of Inquiry as to +the construction and fittings of the <i>London</i> was, on the +whole, decidedly in favour of her perfect seaworthiness. In +the opinion of the Court, the immediate cause of her loss +was the sea getting into the engine-room and extinguishing +the fires; but the Court did not venture upon any positive +conclusions as to whether the action of the sea carried away +the skylight over the engine hatchway, or whether the skylight +was properly secured. It did not appear in evidence +that the fastenings of the skylight were not properly secured, +and it was distinctly stated that the hatchway was perfectly +battened down. There were several points in the evidence +as regards the occurrences at sea—such as the carrying +away the masts and booms, the delay in clearing away the +wreck, the loss of the boats, and other matters relating to +the management of the ship—which might have been more +satisfactorily explained had the lamented Captain, or any of +the officers of the ship, survived to explain them. In the +absence of such explanation, it is but reasonable to give +Captain Martin the credit for the character he always possessed, +of being an able and careful seaman, who would not be +guilty of any great default of management.</p> + +<p>For ourselves, we can hardly believe that the ship was in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span> +disgraceful condition that some represent her to have been, unless +we are ready to assume that there was a gigantic conspiracy +among all concerned in pronouncing the ship to be in safe trim. +The Surveyor of the Board of Trade passed the ship; Lloyd’s +Surveyor, acting in the interests of the Underwriters, passed +the ship; and lastly, the ship was passed by the Emigration +Surveyor, who had not only to look to the ship generally, but +to take into consideration her cargo, for the purpose of seeing +whether she was overloaded. We join in the universal regret +that the real cause of the ship’s foundering, beyond what is +given in the preceding pages, is still a mystery; and it only +remains for us again to express the hope that still more scrutinizing +care will be exercised by Government Inspectors and +others, in regard to every ship concerning whose safe trim they +are called upon fairly and honestly to testify.</p> + +<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> + +<p>Messrs. Wigram have kindly forwarded the following List of +Passengers per steam-ship <i>London</i>, Captain J. Bohun Martin, for +<span class="locked">Melbourne:—</span></p> + +<p class="p1 b05 center">CHIEF CABIN.</p> +<div class="lists"> +<ul class="lists"> +<li>Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Draper</li> +<li>Mr. Owen and child</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. G. F. P. Urquhart</li> +<li>Mr. J. Patrick</li> +<li>Mr. and Miss Vaughan (Brooke)</li> +<li>Mr. J. Alderson</li> +<li>Mr. P. Benson</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. J. Fenton, and two children</li> +<li>Mr. G. M. Smith</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Chapman, and two children</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Clark, and son</li> +<li>Mr. F. Lewis</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. J. Bevan</li> +<li>Dr. J. Woolley</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Debenham</li> +<li>Miss L. Maunder</li> +<li>Mr. J. Robertson</li> +<li>Mr. T. M. Tennant</li> +<li>Mrs. Traill and child</li> +<li>Mr. G. Palmer</li> +<li>Mr. T. Brown</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Amos</li> +<li>Mr. E. Brooks</li> +<li>Mr. J. R. Richardson<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span></li> +<li>Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Kerr</li> +<li>Mrs. and Miss King</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and two children</li> +<li>Mr. A. Sandilands</li> +<li>Mr. E. Youngman</li> +<li>Mr. H. J. Dennis</li> +<li>Mr. E. A. Marks</li> +<li>Mr. D. F. De Pass</li> +<li>Master W. D. Burrell</li> +<li>Dr. J. Hunter</li> +<li>Miss D’Ovoy</li> +<li>Miss C. M<sup>c</sup>Lachlan</li> +<li>Miss Cutting</li> +<li>Mr. M<sup>c</sup>Millan +</li> +</ul> +</div> + +<p class="p1 b05 center">SECOND CABIN.</p> +<div class="lists"> +<ul class="lists"> +<li>Mr. F. Stone</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. White</li> +<li>Miss H. Price</li> +<li>Mr. J. L. Williams</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Graham</li> +<li>Mr. B. G. Rowe</li> +<li>Mr. J. E. Wilson (<em>saved</em>)</li> +<li>Mrs. Morland</li> +<li>Miss G. Graham</li> +<li>Mr. J. Dothie</li> +<li>Mr. C. Gough</li> +<li>Mr. A. Bruce</li> +<li>Mr. J. Woodhouse</li> +<li>Mr. G. Cross</li> +<li>Mr. W. Day</li> +<li>Mr. D. W. Lemon</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Giffett</li> +<li>Mr. G. Chennells</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Wood</li> +<li>Master and Miss Clayson</li> +<li>Mr. Thomas Wood</li> +<li>Mr. Godfrey Wood</li> +<li>Miss E. Wood</li> +<li>Mr. B. Bevan</li> +<li>Miss S. Brooker</li> +<li>Mr. Davies</li> +<li>Mr. T. O’Hagen</li> +<li>Mr. H. W. Harding</li> +<li>Mr. F. Fryer</li> +<li>Mr. J. Munro (<em>saved</em>)</li> +<li>Mr. D. C. Main (<em>saved</em>)</li> +<li>Mr. C. Johnstone</li> +<li>Mr. P. Fenwick</li> +<li>Mrs. and Miss Meggs</li> +<li>Mr. G. H. Campbell</li> +<li>Miss E. Marks</li> +<li>Mr. E. G. Trevenen</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Hickman, two sons and two daughters</li> +<li>Mr. A. M<sup>c</sup>Lean</li> +<li>Mr. Davies +</li> +</ul> +</div> + +<p class="p1 b05 center">THIRD CABIN.</p> +<div class="lists"> +<ul class="lists"> +<li>Mr. W. Passmore</li> +<li>Mr. H. Miller</li> +<li>Mr. C. P. Chandler</li> +<li>Mr. B. Hay</li> +<li>Miss E. Jones</li> +<li>Mrs. and Miss Simpson</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Hanson</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Graham and three children</li> +<li>Mr. David Graham<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span></li> +<li>Mr. M<sup>c</sup>Vittie</li> +<li>Mr. G. Rolwegan</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. Sercombe and three children</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. G. Flick and four children</li> +<li>Mr. R. Trevenen</li> +<li>Mr. D. Block</li> +<li>Mr. J. Gerkem</li> +<li>Messrs. Zulec Morris and Zulec Barnett</li> +<li>Mr. S. Bolton</li> +<li>Mr. T. Skeggs</li> +<li>Mr. and Mrs. D. Smith</li> +<li>Mr. A. Umphray</li> +<li>Master Spring</li> +<li>Mr. A. Hoyeim</li> +<li>Mr. J. Walls</li> +<li>Mr. W. Barron</li> +<li>Mrs. Lampes and two children</li> +<li>Mr. Algernon L. Otter</li> +<li>Mr. John Little</li> +<li>Mr. H. M<sup>c</sup>Covey</li> +<li>Mrs. Bachelor</li> +<li>Mr. J. Kirkwood</li> +<li>Mr. W. Clifton</li> +<li>Mr. R. Reynolds</li> + +</ul> +</div> + +<h3>SEA MESSAGES FROM THE PASSENGERS.</h3> + +<p class="in0"><span class="firstword">Admiral Halsted</span>, the Secretary of Lloyd’s, has received the following +letter from Sir Anthony Perrier, C.B., Her Majesty’s Consul, +and Lloyd’s Agent at Brest, dated 24th February <span class="locked">1866:—</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—I annex a translation of an extract from a letter just received +from the Commissary-General of Marine at Lorient, which may be of +interest to those concerned in the fate of the unfortunate <i>London</i>, +should the original papers sent to Paris not have been transmitted to +Her Majesty’s Government by the Minister of Marine.</p> + +<p class="right b0"> +<span style="margin-right: 5em;">I am, Sir, your obedient servant,</span><br> +<span class="smcap">Anthony Perrier</span>. +</p> + +<p class="p0 in0">To the Secretary at Lloyd’s.</p> +</div> + +<p class="p2">Extract of a letter from Commissary-General of Marine at +<span class="locked">Lorient:—</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>(<i>Translation.</i>)—On the 12th of February last three bottles were +found on the coast of Guiberon and Locruariaquer, containing six +papers written in English, as <span class="locked">follows:—</span></p> + +<p><i>The first paper</i>—D. W. Lemon, London, Thursday, 10th January<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span> +1866. The ship is sinking; no hope of being saved. Dear parents, +may God bless you, as also me, with the hope of eternal salvation.</p> + +<p><i>Second paper.</i>—Steam-ship <i>London</i>.—They are putting out the +boats.</p> + +<p><i>Third paper.</i>—F. G. Huckstepp. On board steam-ship <i>London</i>, +lat. 46 deg. 20 min., long., 7 deg. 30 min.; lost boats, masts, and +sails; ship leaking.</p> + +<p><i>Fourth paper.</i>—We commenced our voyage on Saturday, the 30th +December 1865. Sunday in the channel, Monday in open sea; Tuesday +in ditto; Wednesday at Cowes; Thursday at Plymouth; Friday +and Saturday at sea; Sunday bad weather; Monday water from the +stern comes in cabins; the 9th, heavy damages, a boat lost. May we +get home. Storm.—H. G.</p> + +<p><i>Fifth paper.</i>—F. C. M<sup>c</sup>Millan, of Launceston, Tasmania, 12th January, +to his dear wife and dear children: May God bless you all. +Farewell for this world. Lost in the steam-ship <i>London</i>, bound for +Melbourne.</p> + +<p><i>Sixth paper.</i>—H. J. D. Denis to Th. Denis Knight, at Great Shelford: +Adieu father, brothers, and my ... Edi ... steamer, <i>London</i>, +Bay of Biscay, Thursday, ten o’clock. Ship too heavily laden +for its size, and too crank; windows stove in; water coming in everywhere. +God bless my poor orphans. Request to send this, if found, +to Great Shelford. Storm not too violent for a ship in good condition.</p> +</div> + +<p>On the same day were found, on the shoals of Guiberon, a binnacle +watch, stopped at half-past ten o’clock, a woman’s shift, two +cotton sheets, two splinters of wood, having on them in white +letters, and six centimetres (2½ inches long), the word <i>London</i>.</p> + +<p>A great quantity of staves have been picked up along the coast.</p> + +<p>In compliance with instructions from the Minister of Marine, +the above-mentioned papers have been sent to the Minister of +Marine and Colonies.</p> + +<div class="chapter transnote"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> + +<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made +consistent when a predominant preference was found +in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.</p> + +<p>Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced +quotation marks were remedied when the change was +obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.</p> + +<p>Illustrations in this eBook have been positioned +between paragraphs and outside quotations.</p> + +<p>Original text used “steam-ship” and “steamship”; +both retained here.</p> + +<p>Original text used “Mc” and “M‘” (the curving left +single quote was used because it looks similar +to a superscript “c”). In this ebook, “M<sup>c</sup>” is used +for all of them. +</p> +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75381 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75381-h/images/cover.jpg b/75381-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..34611f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/coversmall.jpg b/75381-h/images/coversmall.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..38f1ef9 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/coversmall.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_001.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb95949 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_001.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_002.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f921c43 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_002.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_006.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_006.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..450ac44 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_006.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_007.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_007.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e914b02 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_007.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_010.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_010.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5c14af --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_010.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_017.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_017.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecf0efa --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_017.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_019.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_019.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f3e465 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_019.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_026.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_026.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..76b8ace --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_026.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_029.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_029.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1b5ddd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_029.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_041.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_041.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ca41781 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_041.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_051.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_051.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bc3b19 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_051.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_053.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_053.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..34b826e --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_053.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_062.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_062.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9aa63a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_062.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_068.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_068.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3e005a --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_068.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_075.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_075.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..568ed14 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_075.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_080.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_080.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d90302 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_080.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_095.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_095.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cb33b47 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_095.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_097.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_097.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d65db9 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_097.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_102.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_102.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d510330 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_102.jpg diff --git a/75381-h/images/i_106.jpg b/75381-h/images/i_106.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..efe8a26 --- /dev/null +++ b/75381-h/images/i_106.jpg |
