lU WRECK OF THE EDWARD CARDWELL. 



The Edward Cardwell, a full rigged barquentine, bound from 

 Quebec, P. Q., to Liverpool, England, after several days out (how 

 many we did not learn), encountered dense fogs off the banks, and 

 for about three days had been sailing in this uncertainty, feeling her 

 way slowly along, the officers not knowing where they were going, 

 but supposing themselves somewhere near the Newfoundland 

 shores. At one time the fog lifted for a few moments, and then 

 the white beacon of Whale island met their view, but the immediate 

 shutting down of a still denser fog left them again in the uncertain 

 condition in which they had been before. Steering as near as 

 possible in the direction of the beacon, it was not until rocks 

 suddenly loomed up near by that the pilot found himself at the 

 entrance of a narrow pass near a rocky shoal with the mainland 

 some half a mile on the left. The ship was under too much 

 headway, though it was moving but slowly at best, to stop or back 

 out of her perilous position. The pilot headed her straight for the 

 opening, and called to all hands to prepare themselves for the shock. 

 One young man sprang to the cabin door and called to the captain, 

 who not havmg time even to take up his watch, which was lost, 

 rushed on deck only just in time to secure a place in the boat, 

 which the frantic men had lowered, and were about severing from 

 its fastenings to the ship. The ship struck and went to pieces in 

 a few hours afterwards ; the crew, nineteen men, were just saved, 

 but having lost all. The men rowed to the neighboring shore, and 

 finding the empty summer house of a Mr. Belvin, one of the 

 inhabitants of the coast, they broke in the door and made a fire, 

 remaining there that night. In the morning they took one of Mr. 

 Belvin's boats, as their own had been destroyed, and rowed along 

 the coast and islands until they reached the abode of Mr. ^^'. H. 

 Whiteley, about fifteen miles from the wreck, where they tarried 

 until they were soon after carried to Greeley island lighthouse, 

 from which place they were taken to the Newfoundland coast, 

 and thus reached some port from which they took passage home. 

 Mr. Whiteley, the Magistrate of the coast, agrees substantially 

 with my statement. The ship went to pieces soon after it struck. 



