The Wreck on the Andamans

Excerpt

PREFACE.

The Author, owing to circumstances, has had access to authentic documents and facts, relating to one of the most remarkable shipwrecks which have ever happened, that of the troop-ships Runnymede and Briton, on the morning of the 12th of November, 1844, upon one of the Andaman Islands.

In reading these, it struck him forcibly, that the circumstances, if thrown into the shape of a narrative, would form not only an interesting publication, but would serve as a monument of the cool intrepidity and judicious presence of mind of British officers, soldiers, and seamen, in a time of remarkable trial.

They also tend to illustrate in a very striking manner the correctness of the classic and poetical description of the “dangers of the sea,” contained in that passage of Scripture, which the Author has often observed to be listened to with great interest, when read in its course, in the churches of our seaports, and which, on that account, he makes no apology for quoting in a work, not professedly religious.

“They that go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters; these men see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. For at his word the stormy wind ariseth, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They are carried up to the heaven, and down again to the deep: their soul melteth away because of the trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man: and are at their wits’ end. So when they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, he delivereth them out of their distress. For he maketh the storm to cease: so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they are at rest; and so he bringeth them unto the haven where they would be.”

Psalm cvii., v. 23-30, Com. Pr. Book.

If this little work should answer the author’s intention by proving entertaining as well as instructive, he will feel that he has been rewarded for the pains he has taken in compiling it.

Reading,
July, 1845.

THE
WRECK ON THE ANDAMANS.

“O’er the smooth bosom of the faithless tides,
Propelled by gentle gales, the vessel glides.”Falconer.

The gallant Barque the Runnymede, of 507 tons burthen, commanded by Captain William Clement Doutty, an experienced seaman, and the property of Messrs. Hall & Co. and Ingram of Riches-court, Lime-street, London, being a remarkably staunch river-built vessel of the A 1 or first class, left Gravesend on the 20th of June, 1844, bound for Calcutta. She had on board a general cargo and a crew of twenty-eight persons, including officers. She also carried out, on account of the Honourable East India Company, thirty-eight soldiers, with two women and one child, belonging to Her Majesty’s 10th Regiment of Foot, and also Captain Stapleton, Ensigns Venables, Du Vernett, and Purcell, and one hundred and five soldiers, ten women, and thirteen children, belonging to Her Majesty’s 50th Regiment of Foot. The whole of the military were under the command of Captain Stapleton; the medical officer was Mr....