boy, beside the
crew. They anchored at Kent's Group, and Howard landed. The brig, some
hours after, was observed to drift: the wind blowing hard on the shore,
her destruction was inevitable. The long boat was laden, and leaving
behind the passengers and some seamen, Howard after great efforts
reached the Derwent. Under his direction, the _Governor Sorell_ sloop
was dispatched to receive the people left on the island. Meanwhile the
_John Palmer_ entered the group, took off the women and the boy, and a
bag of 400 dollars left in their charge; and was lost with the whole of
her cargo. Nor was the _Governor Sorell_ more fortunate: the seamen of
the _Daphne_, who left the island in a boat, saw on the north-east coast
of Cape Barren, the binnacle and other fragments of that vessel, in
which Howard perished.

The same fate seemed to attend his property after his death. He had
freighted the _Frederick_ and the _Wellington_ with sheep and cattle for
the Isle of France, a market which then offered large gains. After some
delay they reached the Northumberland Islands, off which the stock all
died, from want of room and the influence of climate. Unwilling to
proceed without cargo, the captain detained the vessels for spars. Here
the _Frederick_ was wrecked, and twenty-two of the crew were drowned;
but the chief officer, one woman, and a boy, reached the _Wellington_.
They then proceeded to Timor, constrained on the passage to subsist on
the preserved hides of the cattle. From Timor they proceeded to Batavia:
the captain died, and the crew dispersed; and the vessel was taken under
charge by the Orphan Chamber, her register being lost, and her owners
unknown!

A calamity still more singular, may be worth record.[117] The _Surrey_,
Captain Raine, left the Derwent in 1820. Having heard that men were
detained at Ducie's Island, he went there in search of them. The men
came to the beach, but could scarcely articulate from exhaustion: they
had belonged to the _Essex_, a whaler. One day, a whale of the largest
class struck the vessel, and broke off part of her false keel: she then
went a-head of them a quarter of a mile, and turning back met the vessel
with such tremendous velocity that she was driven back at the rate of
several knots: the sea rushed in at the cabin windows; every man on deck
was knocked down, and the bows were completely stove in. The sailors
were obliged to abandon the vessel, and after visiting several islands
were fo