During that season they stripped three hundred
tons of bark and chopped it ready for bagging. John Toms went over
to weigh and ship the bark, and brought it back, together with the
men, in the barque 'Andrew Mack'.
WRECK OF THE CONVICT SHIP "NEVA," ON KING'S ISLAND.
She sailed from Cork on January 8th, 1835, B. H. Peck, master; Dr.
Stevenson, R.N., surgeon. She had on board 150 female prisoners and
thirty-three of their children, nine free women and their twenty-two
children, and a crew of twenty-six. Several ships had been wrecked
on King's Island, and when a vessel approached it the mate of the
watch warned his men to keep a bright look out. He said, "King's
Island is inhabited by anthropophagi, the bloodiest man eaters ever
known; and, if you don't want to go to pot, you had better keep your
eyes skinned." So the look-out man did not go to sleep.
Nevertheless, the 'Neva' went ashore on the Harbinger reef, on May
13th unshipped her rudder and parted into four pieces. Only nine men
and thirteen women reached the island; they were nearly naked and had
nothing to eat, and they wandered along the beach during the night,
searching amongst the wreckage. At last they found a puncheon of
rum, upended it, stove in the head, and drank. The thirteen women
then lay down on the sand close together, and slept.
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