Third paper.—F. G. Huckstepp. On board steam-ship London, lat. 46 deg. 20 min., long., 7 deg. 30 min.; lost boats, masts, and sails; ship leaking.
Fourth paper.—We commenced our voyage on Saturday, the 30th December 1865. Sunday in the channel, Monday in open sea; Tuesday in ditto; Wednesday at Cowes; Thursday at Plymouth; Friday and Saturday at sea; Sunday bad weather; Monday water from the stern comes in cabins; the 9th, heavy damages, a boat lost. May we get home. Storm.—H. G.
Fifth paper.—F. C. McMillan, of Launceston, Tasmania, 12th January, to his dear wife and dear children: May God bless you all. Farewell for this world. Lost in the steam-ship London, bound for Melbourne.
Sixth paper.—H. J. D. Denis to Th. Denis Knight, at Great Shelford: Adieu father, brothers, and my ... Edi ... steamer, London, Bay of Biscay, Thursday, ten o’clock. Ship too heavily laden for its size, and too crank; windows stove in; water coming in everywhere. God bless my poor orphans. Request to send this, if found, to Great Shelford. Storm not too violent for a ship in good condition.
On the same day were found, on the shoals of Guiberon, a binnacle watch, stopped at half-past ten o’clock, a woman’s shift, two cotton sheets, two splinters of wood, having on them in white letters, and six centimetres (2½ inches long), the word London.
A great quantity of staves have been picked up along the coast.
In compliance with instructions from the Minister of Marine, the above-mentioned papers have been sent to the Minister of Marine and Colonies.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.