Ear: Afton

From The Daily Morning Astorian, Nov. 29, 1888, the story of a “providential escape,” Capt. Gilmore‘s tale of the loss of the British bark Afton the previous year.

Sailing for San Diego, the Afton came across a dense fog and struck a coral reef off an island about 800 miles west of Honolulu, Hawaii.

The ship eventually floated off the reef but leaked so badly the 19 men aboard were forced to abandon ship. In two lifeboats, they set off, with the captain in charge of one and the mate in charge of the other.

The wind direction made it impossible to return to Honolulu, so they followed the trade winds, heading west. After about three weeks at sea, when the mate stood up to take off his coat, the boat lurched, and he fell overboard. “He sank, and was never seen to rise to the surface,” the captain said. The mate was the only casualty.

One can imagine how they must have suffered from thirst in the blistering sun and heat of the tropical climate, but their water allowance was only a pint per day per person. Each boat also had three bags of hard bread, which was carefully rationed.

For 29 seemingly endless days, they sailed, the boats staying together all that time for almost 3,000 miles. Happily, the rations lasted until they landed safely on Guam, grateful and unharmed. (Painting: William Howard Yorke)