G'day again,

Joe Offer suggests that posting the newspaper account, as reproduced in Geoffrey Ingleton's 1952 book True Patriots All, will add to this thread ... so:

An Authentic and Interesting Narrative, of Seamen Marooned
for Four Years on an Island off the New Zealand Coast.

         "Tisn't his merriment, kindled ashore,
          By the cash too quickly expended;
         'Tisn't his going to sea for more,
          When the store in the locker is ended.
         'Tis the hour of distress,
          When misfortunes oppress;
          And virtue finds sorrow assail her:
         'Tis the bosom of grief,
          Made glad by relief,
          That pictures the heart of a sailor.

SYDNEY, Thursday, December 20th 1813.

Yesterday, arrived from a sealing voyage, after a sixteen months absence, the colonial schooner, Governor Bligh, Mr. Grono, master with 14,000 seal-skins and about 3 tons of sea-elephant oil.

The vessel brings from the west coast of New Zealand, a joyful gang of men, consisting of ten persons, left by the brig. Active, Captain Bader, so long ago as the 16th of February, 1809, in charge of Mr. David Lowrieston.

The Active went from Port Jackson, December 11th, 1808, and having landed her people on an island about a mile and a half from the main of New Zealand, sailed again for this port, but doubtless perished by the way, and has never since been heard of.

The men who were left on the island were reduced to the necessity of subsisting for nearly four years upon the seal, when in season, and at other times upon a species of the fern, parts of which they roasted or boiled, and other parts were obliged to eat undressed, owing to a nauscea it imbibed from any culinary process.

They were left upon the small island with a very scanty allowance of provisions, and the Active was to come to Port Jackson for a further supply. They had a whale-boat, and their only edged implements consisted of an axe, an adze, and a cooper's drawing knife. In a short time they procured 11,000 skins part of which Mr. Grono has brought up.

In hopes of finding upon the main some succour, which the small island did not afford, they went thither, but were nearly lost by the way, as some of the lower streaks of the boat were near falling out, owing, as was imagined, to the nails being of cast iron.

On their safe arrival, however, they found an old boat on a beach, which it subsequently appeared had been left there by Mr. Grono on a former voyage. With the aid of this additional boat, when both repaired, they projected an excursion towards some of the more frequented sealing places, and were on the point of setting out when a tremendous hurricane in one night destroyed the boats, and put an end to their hope of relief.

The only nutritive the place afforded was a species of the fern root, resembling a yam when cut and possessing some of the properties of the vegetable. This could only be procured at a distance of six or seven miles from their hut, which was near the sea-side, and had it been plentiful would have been a desirable substitute for better diet; but it was unfortunately so sparingly scattered amongst other shrubs as to be found with difficulty; and they solemnly affirm that they have for a week at a time had neither this nor any other food whatever.

With the assistance of a canoe made up of seal-skins, a party visited their former island, and found their stocks of skins much injured by the weather, but did all they could for their preservation. This was their only seal depot, and out of the usual season they now and then found a solitary straggler, in some instances when they were so reduced by famine as to be scarcely capable of securing those that Providence threw in their way.

With their axe, adze and cooper's drawing knife they afterwards built a small boat, but with intense labour, as without saws they could only cut one plank out of each tree. The hoops upon their provision casks were beaten into nails; and by the same patient and laborious process they at length projected the building of a small vessel, and had provided 80 half-inch boards for the purpose, all cut in the way above described. Truly a feat of great perseverance.

The fortunate accident of Mr. Grono touching there has however preserved them from further suffering and peril, of which they have had full store, on that exposed and inhospitable shore.

Ingleton, G. C.,TruePatriots All, or news from early Australia as told in a collection of broadsides, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1952, p. 65.
Notes on the Broadsides:
An Authentic and Interesting Narrative, of Seamen Marooned &c. page 64

Reprinted verbatim from the report in The Sydney Gazette of 23rd Dec. 1813. Several other cases of seamen marooned for long periods occurred during the sealing era. The Sydney Gazette of 24th July 1813 reported the arrival of the Perseverance with five men who had been left on the Solander Islands for four and a half years. The Sydney Gazette of 5th April 1817 reported the arrival of Captain Coffin in the American ship Enterprize. He had met with three men on a barren isle called the Snares. They had been left there by the schooner Adventure, Captain Keith, some years before, with another man who had died. All had the same dreary prospect before them until the opportune arrival of the Enterprize.

Enjoy!

Bob Bolton