Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1870 — Fifty one Days on a Coral Reef. [ARTICLE]

Fifty one Days on a Coral Reef.

A RKMAMXAHL* story reaches us from Liverpool Blx BriJors have just paaned through a succession of adventures on a desert island, which more than realised the poet thrilling of the many romantic stories of shipwreck written for our youth. The fine new iron clipper ship Mercuriua left Ban Francisco early In January last an her return to England, having previously made her flnt voyage from the Clyde to Sydney. Blif was cbmmandea by Oapt. Cuthbertnon, an experienced navigator, and all went well with her until the 25th of March. In the early morning of that day, it being then dark and raining heavily, the good ahlD struck upon a dangerous coral island, known as the Rocas reef in latitude 3:52 8., longitude 83:20 w. No one on board had thought of danger until five minutes before the Mercnnufi struck. The lookout man then gave the alarm, “Breakers ahead!” The captain was called, the course of the ship was altered, and her helm was put “ hard over.” But It was too late. A few seconds of that Intense anxiety in the endurance of which men seem to live years, and then all doubts were solved by the Mercurius first grazing her sMe below the water against the sharp edges of the coral, and then striking violently on it twioe. She began to fill instantly, and as she was hanging as It were over tho ledge of the rock, the word was passed to man the long boat, in the hope of saving all hands. But while this was being done, the ship lurched suddenly outwards and went down like a stone, in eight fathoms of water. It may bo remarked that one of the characteristics of coral reefs is that they have frequently deep water right up to them, and the rocky islands in the Red Sea, the position of which is wrongly given on the charts, arc especially dangsronrfrom this fact, and because like the Rocas Reef, they lie low, and at night or in thick weather elude observations thoroughly, x Out of the twenty-two hands od board of th* Mercurius the morning 'found but six alive, and tbefe aftffl striPUMg two hours and until the fide feel, gMfied afoot ing on tho ledge ahd proceeded toexplo re It. Their story remlndirßoe rosi this time of Philip Robinson Family Robinson, and therlfgenioushero of Mr. Read’s and Mr. BoncisanU’s now« 1 Looking to the sea,-wtops or the fore and main-mast of the Medmrhls were just visible out of the waterj-leolSngqver the islands which wen* to be their 'home, some fifteen acres if barren rock, interspersed with patches of sand,, and connected by a narrow isthmus with another rock equally barren, of the same size, met their gaze. One cocoanut tree formed the only sign of vegetation. It was the sole survivor of those which Were planted there some years ago by order of Her Majesty’s Consul at Pernambuco, in order that the reef might be seen more easily by vessels on the Brazil or Cape Horn route, in direct track of which it lies; but there had been wrecks here previously, and with the aid of articles left behind by the survivors, the shipwrecked men contrived to bend circumstances to their will. They found two iron tanks deposited,in convenient positions and filled with water, as well as a considerable quantity of broken timber, out of which they built themselves a log hut. They found, too, that pearl of price, a broken knife, a hammer, a two ounce weight and a large copper bolt, and with these clumsy tools they made two boats «ut of the planking strewed about the rocks, fastening them with nails which they extracted from the broken timber of other wrecks. It does not appear that the poor follows had any thought of escaping in these boats, but they were enabled to make fishing excursions and to sail with signals flyiDg in search of passing ships in the early morniDg and in evening, when the sun’s fierceness was subdued; — -- —; They had no clothes, and except in their hut no shade, and the tropical heat was terrible. The majority of the men saved were in their berths when thc’Mercurius struck, and swam to the rock in their shirts; and it was not until one of their number made a hat out of the fibre of the solitary cocoa tree, sewing it together with a needle made out of a piece of brass found on the island, that any protection for the head was to be seen among them. To add to their misery, the reef swarmed with venomous ants, which bit tho strangers unmercifully, and -with an effect which can only be realized by those who have suffered from insect life of tropical climes.

The commisssriat question was settled in a way which will make every schoolboy’s mouth water who reads of it. They went in their boat and caught fish and turtle, and they had an abundance of birds’ eggs and shell-fish. They manufactured bird traps and caught young birds, cooking thens by a fire which they never suffered to go out by night or day. They had, of course, no matches, and no means of procuring a light other than the timehonored one we nave all read of in Cooper’s novels—that of rubbing two bits of wood together till they ignite. There was no fuel belonging to the island, and the broken debris of former wrecks supplied the only material for the all-important fire. Three times during their sojourn on the rock was this fire suffered from some accident to go out; and three times was the experiment in friction anxiously and successfully tried. So the time wore on until fifty-one weary days had been spent on the reef, days m which every man scanned the horizon, and in which the strong man cheered the faint hearted, and all spoke hope in turn. It is easy to picture the existence these men led. The first gratitude of escape; the anxious search for fellow survivors; the mournful conclusion that the rest of their shipmates were no more; the stern necessity which bade them work, invent, contrive; the development, day by day, of some fresh ingenuity, come little suspected quality in each, and the gradual accumulation of reliefs, and even comforts—can all be traced. They were prudent men—men taught by calamity to prepare for a rainy day; for, when rescued, they had two hundred eggs in store, and are described as being in good condition. Their rescue was not effected until the 15th of May, when the commander of the iron clipper bark Silver Craig, Captain Cohn, was approaching Pernambuco, and discerned a lump on the well known Bocae Reef, which he made out to be a hut. Drawing nearer he discerned a signal of distress, composed of 'a seaman’s stnped shirt, fluttering half-mast high, and he then hove-to within two miles from the island, and waited until six nearly naked men put out in their rude boats and came on board. They were kindly and hospitably received, and had a passage given them to Liverpool, where S are now telling their strange story, exhibiting to their friends the cocoaflbre hats, which were until recently their only articles of attire, and which they now keep as mementoes of the perils they have escaped. * .- * * In simple force, in romance, in strangeness, in fertility of resources and in ad-' venture the real experiences of these six ailors on a desolate island, is worthy of Defoe, and makes most fictitious histories of shipwreck seem tame and feeble by comparison.— London News.

In Prussia. 1,604 persons who had been legally divorced, applied during 1809 for permission to re-marry. Of this number, all but 355 were allowed to try it again.