The captain and the survivers of his boat’s crew, were taken up by the American whale-ship, the Dauphin, Captain Zimri Coffin, of Nantucket, and arrived at Valparaiso on the seventeenth of March following: he was taken up in latitude 37° S. off the island of St. Mary. The third boat got separated from him on the 28th of January, and has not been heard of since. The names of all the survivers, are as follows:—Captain George Pollard, junr., Charles Ramsdale, Owen Chase, Benjamin Lawrence, and Thomas Nicholson, all of Nantucket. There died in the captain’s boat, the following: Brazilla Ray of Nantucket, Owen Coffin of the same place, who was shot, and Samuel Reed, a black.
The captain relates, that after being separated, as herein before stated, they continued to make what progress they could towards the island of Juan Fernandez, as was agreed upon; but contrary winds and the extreme debility of the crew prevailed against their united exertions. He was with us equally surprised and concerned at the separation that took place between us; but continued on his course, almost confident of meeting with us again. On the fourteenth, the whole stock of provisions belonging to the second mate’s boat, was entirely exhausted, and on the twenty-fifth, the black man, Lawson Thomas, died, and was eaten by his surviving companions. On the twenty-first, the captain and his crew were in the like dreadful situation with respect to their provisions; and on the twenty-third, another coloured man, Charles Shorter, died out of the same boat, and his body was shared for food between the crews of both boats. On the twenty-seventh, another, Isaac Shepherd, (a black man,) died in the third boat; and on the twenty-eighth, another black, named Samuel Reed, died out of the captain’s boat. The bodies of these men constituted their only food while it lasted; and on the twenty-ninth, owing to the darkness of the night and want of sufficient power to manage their boats, those of the captain and second mate separated in latitude 35° S. longitude 100° W. On the 1st of February, having consumed the last morsel, the captain and the three other men that remained with him, were reduced to the necessity of casting lots. It fell upon Owen Coffin to die, who with great fortitude and resignation submitted to his fate. They drew lots to see who should shoot him: he placed himself firmly to receive his death, and was immediately shot by Charles Ramsdale, whose hard fortune it was to become his executioner. On the 11th Brazilla Ray died; and on these two bodies the captain and Charles Ramsdale, the only two that were then left, subsisted until the morning of the twenty-third, when they fell in with the ship Dauphin, as before stated, and were snatched from impending destruction. Every assistance and attentive humanity, was bestowed upon them by Capt. Coffin to whom Capt. Pollard acknowledged every grateful obligation. Upon making known the fact, that three of our companions had been left at Ducies Island, to the captain of the U. S. frigate Constellation, which lay at Valparaiso when we arrived, he said he should immediately take measures to have them taken off.
On the 11th of June following I arrived at Nantucket in the whale-ship the Eagle, Capt. William H. Coffin. My family had received the most distressing account of our shipwreck, and had given me up for lost. My unexpected appearance was welcomed with the most grateful obligations and acknowledgments to a beneficent Creator, who had guided me through darkness, trouble, and death, once more to the bosom of my country and friends.
SUPPLEMENT.
The following is a list of the whole crew of the ship, with their arrangements into the three several boats upon starting from the wreck: the names of those who died, were left on the island, or shot—with those also who survived, and who were in the third or second mate’s boat at the time of separation—and whose fate is yet uncertain:—
| Capt. James Pollard, jun. | 1st boat | survived |
| Obed Hendricks, | do. | put in 3d boat |
| Brazilla Ray, | do. | died |
| Owen Coffin, | do. | shot |
| Samuel Reed, (black) | do. | died |
| Charles Ramsdale, | do. | survived |
| Seth Weeks, | do. | left on the island |
| Owen Chase, | 2d boat | survived |
| Benjamin Lawrence, | do. | do. |
| Thomas Nicholson, | do. | do. |
| Isaac Cole, | do. | died |
| Richard Peterson, (black) | do. | do. |
| William Wright, | do. | left on the island |
| Matthew P. Joy, | 3d boat | died |
| Thomas Chapple, | do. | left on the island |
| Joseph West, | do. | missing |
| Lawson Thomas, (black) | do. | died |
| Charles Shorter, (black) | do. | do. |
| Isaiah Shepherd, (black) | do. | do. |
| William Bond, (black.) | do. | missing |
FINIS.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES