- end_line
- 3428
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 3380
- text
- Some fifteen years previous, they had sailed together as officers of
the barque Jane, of London, a South Seaman. Somewhere near the New
Hebrides, they struck one night upon an unknown reef; and, in a few
hours, the Jane went to pieces. The boats, however, were saved; some
provisions also, a quadrant, and a few other articles. But several of
the men were lost before they got clear of the wreck.
The three boats, commanded respectively by the captain, Jermin, and the
third mate, then set sail for a small English settlement at the Bay of
Islands in New Zealand. Of course they kept together as much as
possible. After being at sea about a week, a Lascar in the captain’s
boat went crazy; and, it being dangerous to keep him, they tried to
throw him overboard. In the confusion that ensued the boat capsized
from the sail’s “jibing”; and a considerable sea running at the time,
and the other boats being separated more than usual, only one man was
picked up. The very next night it blew a heavy gale; and the remaining
boats taking in all sail, made bundles of their oars, flung them
overboard, and rode to them with plenty of line. When morning broke,
Jermin and his men were alone upon the ocean: the third mate’s boat, in
all probability, having gone down.
After great hardships, the survivors caught sight of a brig, which took
them on board, and eventually landed them at Sydney.
Ever since then our mate had sailed from that port, never once hearing
of his lost shipmates, whom, by this time, of course, he had long given
up. Judge, then, his feelings when Viner, the lost third mate, the
instant he touched the deck, rushed up and wrung him by the hand.
During the gale his line had parted; so that the boat, drifting fast to
leeward, was out of sight by morning. Reduced, after this, to great
extremities, the boat touched, for fruit, at an island of which they
knew nothing. The natives, at first, received them kindly; but one of
the men getting into a quarrel on account of a woman, and the rest
taking his part, they were all massacred but Viner, who, at the time,
was in an adjoining village. After staying on the island more than two
years, he finally escaped in the boat of an American whaler, which
landed him at Valparaiso. From this period he had continued to follow
the seas, as a man before the mast, until about eighteen months
previous, when he went ashore at Tahiti, where he now owned the
schooner we saw, in which he traded among the neighbouring islands.
The breeze springing up again just after nightfall, Viner left us,
promising his old shipmate to see him again, three days hence, in
Papeetee harbour.
- title
- Chunk 2