The Cospatrick emigrant ship destroyed at sea - ILN 1875

The Cospatrick emigrant ship destroyed at sea, from a photograph by Mr. F. C. Gould of Gravesend taken just before she sailed from the Thames. The Great Disaster at Sea. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 9 January 1875.
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THE BURNING OF AN EMIGRANT-SHIP. The terrible disaster at sea on Nov. 18, which was related in our paper of last week, is still the topic of much sorrowful comment and discussion. An official despatch from the Governor of St. Helena to the Earl of Carnarvon, Secretary of State for the Colonies, is dated Dec. 10, four days after the arrival there of the ship British Sceptre, with three survivors only of this dreadful misadventure. These persons, whose sufferings have been of the strangest extremity, but whose lives have been preserved, are Mr. Charles Henry Macdonald, of Montrose, who was second mate of the unfortunate vessel; Thomas Lewis, of Anglesey, who was the quartermaster; and a youth of eighteen, Edward Cotter, an ordinary seaman, from the Chichester training-ship. They arrived last week in London, and their evidence has been taken in an official form by Dr. Isaac Featherston, Agent-General here for the Government of New Zealand, and in another official inquest, held at the Custom-House, by Mr. J. C. Stockton, Receiver of Wrecks for the Port of London. The particulars of this melancholy story are known. The Cospatrick sailed from London on Sept. 11, bound for Auckland, New Zealand, with 429 emigrant passengers, and a crew of forty-four men, officers and sailors. At midnight on Tuesday, Nov. 17, fire broke out in the fore part of the vessel. She was then in latitude 37 deg. 15 min. S., and longitude 12 deg. 25 min. E., several hundred miles west-by-south of the Cape of Good Hope. The officers and crew failed to put out the fire, and the ship, having no steering way on her, got her head to the wind, so that the conflagration quickly ran aft. The boats first lowered full of people were capsized and sunk, with all in them, eighty persons in one boat, mostly women. Two life-boats kept afloat, with thirty-two people in one and thirty in the other. The port life-boat was in charge of Mr. C. Romaine, chief mate; the other life-boat was under Mr. Macdonald. What became of the former has not been positively ascertained. The two boats parted company in a gale on the 21st. Mr. Macdonald's life-boat contained twenty three passengers, thirteen seamen, the baker, a boy, and the emigrants' cook. They saw the ship sink, on the afternoon of the 19th, with those who remained on board. The master, Captain Alexander E:mslie, had thrown his wife and child and himself into the sea, with Dr. Cadle, the surgeon, when there was no more hope of saving the ship. The boat carrying Mr. Macdonald and his companions was picked up, on the 27th, by the British Sceptre, of Liverpool. All but five of the thirty in that boat had died of hunger and thirst and exposure. There were no females in this party. They had no food, no fresh water, no mast or sail, and but one oar. A girl's petticoat was rigged upon the oar for a sail, which enabled them to go before a southerly wind. Some of them went mad before they died. It is horrible to learn that, before the survivors were relieved, they were obliged to suck the blood and eat the livers of several of their dead companions. Two of the five, one a passenger, the other a sailor, named Robert Hamilton, died on board the British Sceptre. They were all treated most kindly by Captain Jahnke, the master of the ship, and by the officers and crew of the same. It is thought just possible that the other life-boat may have reached the lonely islets of Tristan d'Acunha, where there are a few settlers of English race. H.M.S. Sappho was sent from the Cape de Verde Islands, on the 6th ult., to look after this chance. But two steamers have arrived at Madeira-one from the Cape of Good Hope, the other from St. Helena which bring no news of the escape of more lives. The latest date from the Cape is the 16th ult. The fire is supposed to have begun in the boatswain's locker, which contained ropes and oakum, cotton waste, tar, paint, and oils; near this were several casks of fat, and some kerosine oil; in the forepeak were seventy tons of coals; and there were about forty tons of spirit on board. Our Illustration of the Cospatrick is from a photograph by Mr. F. C. Gould, of Gravesend, taken just before she sailed from the Thames. She was a sailing-ship, of 1220 tons burden, 190 ft. in length, 34 ft. in breadth, and with 24 ft. depth of hold. She was built of teak, at Moulmein, British Burmah, in 1856, and was first employed as an Indian troopship, but passed into the hands of private owners, and was used for the coolie trade to Demerara. After belonging to the late Duncan Dunbar, she was purchased by Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Co., of Lombard-street, who have contracts with the New Zealand Government for the conveyance of emigrants to New Zealand. This was her second voyage in that service. The New Zealand Government emigrants on board were chiefly of the agricultural-labourer class, from the midland and eastern counties; they consisted of 177 adult males, 125 women, 58 boys, 53 girls, and 16 babies; and there were also four independent passengers. The emigrants were taken on board from the New Zealand Government Agency's dep6t at Blackwall. The portraits of Captain Alexander Elmslie, of Mrs. Elmslie, and of their little boy, four years old, will be regarded with painful interest. That of Captain Elmslie is from a photograph by Mr. Lonsdale; Mrs. Elmslie's, by Mr. F. C. Gould, of Gravesend; and that of the child, by Mr. T. Monk, of Gravesend. There are two children surviving, little girls. It is to be hoped that these orphans will receive some benefit from the Mansion House Fund, to which the New Zealand Government Agency has subscribed £1000, for the relief of those left destitute by the burning of the Cospatrick. We shall give the portraits of the three survivors in next week's publication.