Si.! i îS i
i r i "
; i!
1 I. i r i
her, and finding that she was the schooner Carmen, closed and
took her in tow. But for the Blonde’s opportune arrival, she
would have been drifted to the northward, and obliged to run
into any port she could reach. Mr. Usborne came on board,
and as soon as he had refreshed himself by a few hours’ sleep,
gave me the following account of his proceedings and accidents.
After leaving Talcahuano, wind and weather favoured the
Carmen until she had run along the coast from Tucapel Head
to Cape Tirua, at about a mile from the surf, without seeing
either smoke, flags, people, or wreck ; but, during one night,
a fire was seen on Tucapel Head. When Mr. Usborne spoke
the Blonde, on the morning of the 29th, the schooner was on
her way to the place where she had seen the fire; and he
would have said so when the Blonde hailed him had he had
time, but as she passed on without stopping, and he felt sure
that the Challenger’s people were not in the direction which
she was taking, he kept a different course. At about two
in the afternoon of that day, while four seamen were aloft on
the topsail yard, furling the topsail, the schooner gave a sudden
plunge into a high swell, and away went the foremast
head, fore-topmast, and topsail-yard. The four men were carried
overboard, but saved; though one (James Bennett) was severely
bruised. The mainmast followed, being dragged downwards
and broken by the rigging attached to the head of the foremast;
and in this state, a mere wreck, the Carmen drifted towards
Mocha. So wretchedly was the vessel provided in every way,
that the only tools which they had to cut the laniards of the
rigging with, were knives and a cooper’s old adze.
After clearing the wreck, they got up a small spar abaft, on
which was set the Beagle’s boat’s sail; and by means of cleats,*
Bennett and J . Nutcher (boatswain’s mate of the Blonde), got
to the head of the stump of the foremast, although, being loose
in the step, it swayed to and fro as if it would go overboard,
and fixed temporary rigging. A staysail and trysail were
then set, and just saved her from going ashore upon the wea-
* To secure these cleats to the mast, they were obliged to draw nails
out of the vessel’s beams, having no others.
ther side of Mocha, while it was blowing hard, with a high
sea running ; and in all probability, not one person would have
been saved had she struck. If Mr. Usborne had not known
this land well, from his late survey, it is not likely that they
would have escaped, because when they found themselves about
half a mile from the breakers, the tack which appeared to the
others to be by far the best, was in truth the worst : had they
gone on that tack, nothing could have saved them. Mr.
Ushorne saw their position exactly, and knowing how the current
would affect them, determined upon what they thought
the wrong tack, and rescued them. I say that Mr. Usborne
did this ; because Mr. Biddlecombe was sick, and the master
of the vessel reluctantly yielded to the person who he saw was
at home, while he himself was utterly bewildered.
After this narrow escape, the schooner was drifted to the southward,
as far as the latitude of Valdivia, before the southerly
wind, which took the Blonde to the mouth of the Leübu,
drove the Carmen back slowly to the northward. Mr. Usborne
and his companions had almost entered the opening of the Bay
of Concepcion early in the morning of the day on which the
Blonde took them in tow, but had been drifted away again by
a fresh wind, and were falling to leeward fast, for want of sail,
when the Blonde arrived. Mr. Usborne recovered from his
fatigue in two or three days, but Bennett was ill for a fortnight.
During the few days they were away, they suffered much.
As for the ten men belonging to the vessel, they were utterly
useless, being frightened or sick during the whole time ; so
that but for the exertion of the Blonde’s seamen, of Bennett, of
the master of the vessel (Mr. Thayer), of Mr. Biddlecombe,
and above all, Mr. Usborne, the Carmen might have left her
remains on the shore, when perhaps few, if any, would have
survived to tell the fatal tale.*
The Blonde worked to windward, with the schooner in tow,
during the remainder of the day and early part of the night,
and at midnight they both anchored off Talcahuano.
* Mr. Usborne’s narrative of this affair is in the Appendix, No. 27»
t i
A i\ll z
:
0Hi
IM
: 1
{■ > ;
j (j
i i
ll.
li'