!
1841.
Journal of Occurrences
423
making most earnest intreaties on their knees for assistance; hove the ship to, lowered both quarter boats, and fortu..ately succeeded in taking off the whole of the crew, 46 in number; the poor fellows, when safe on board, knew not now to express their thankfulness for their narrow escape from the awful death to which they were so imminently exposed; the junk was evidently settling down fast in the water, and no doubt in a few hours more would have sunk. I feel thankful to Providence that made me the humble means of saving so many human beings from a watery grave; at the same time 1 assure you I feel thankful for my escape from the late severe weather; for although we had not a tyfoon, being well to the southward, still we en- countered a heavy gale from the S. W., with a tremendous sea, which en- dangered the ship in running before it, and forced me to lie to for nearly 18 hours under a close-reefed main-topsail."
How different this treatment from that shown to those who were on board the unfortunate cutter Louisa. Our readers cannot fail to be interested in the narrative, given in preceding pages, of the loss of that vessel. She was brought out from England, and formerly belong- ed to the factory of E. I. Co. in China; on the arrival of the king's commission she was taken into royal service, and ever since has been a conspicuous object; repeatedly under fire, from the Chinese forts and men-of-war, she always escaped unharmed. But she could not withstand the dreadful fury of the tyfoon. She started from Macao on the morning of the 20th in company with, or a little before, the Young Hebe-both bound to Hongkong. The Young Hebe returned to Macao disasted in the forenoon of the 23d, having narrowly escaped shipwreck, near Chungchow off the southwest extreme of Lantao. The Louisa was reported to have been last seen by the people in the Hebe three or four miles ahead of them, in the Lan- tao passage, rather far to leeward. Of her fate, however, nothing was reported in Macao, either by boats or by the steamers that came in during the 23d, and the morning of the 24th, and great anxiety began to be felt for the safety of those who were in her. From I- chow, she seems to have been driven on towards Chook-chow, round the Great Ladrone southward, and thence almost due west to the place where she struck this was south of Santchou, on an island north of Ty-loo. The proper name of island we do not know; its south point is called Tee-loo, and its northwestern
Kaoulan; and
Fei-sha tseun is believed to be the village
near which the cutter was lost.
Totally lost. H. B. M.'s cutter Louisa; ships James Laing and Prince George; schooner Rose; Snarleyyow; and Black Joke.
Wrecked or on shore; transports Framjee Cowasjee and Nazareth Shah; brig Jane; schooner Sylph.
Dismasted or otherwise injured; H. B. M. ship Sulphur, schooner Young Hebe; and brig Algerine; ships Penang; Royalist (late Mary Gordon); Isabella Robertson; Austin; Fatima; Urgent; Pestonjee Bomanjee; Sulimany; Helen; Beulah; America; City of Palaces; Arun; Mermaid; John Barry; Agnes; John Tomkinsou; Betsy and Sarah; City of Derry.