WRITTEN NOTICE IN CABIN. 123 



'Those were now generally covered with from one to 

 four feet of water, hut some masses were level with 

 its surface. The whole was chequered with spaces 

 of white sand, had a bright grass-green hue when 

 viewed from a distance, and when looking down on 

 it from the poop of the wreck, might have been 

 likened to a great submarine cabbage garden. 



Before it got dark we had righted the old coppers 

 of the ship, which were lying on the deck, in order 

 to cook the men's suppers, and after a little trouble 

 we rigged a kind of table in the cuddy with some of 

 the bulk-heads, and established ourselves for the 

 night. We found written on one of the bulk- 

 heads the following notice : — 



* Boarded by us 27th Sept. 1842 ; found the 

 vessel gutted of all portable articles of any value ; 

 found New Zealand newspaper of 14th June, and a 

 writing on the forecastle importing the ship went 

 ashore July, 1842. 



Norman Miller . Comr. of Wilmot, Greenock. 

 Michael Wycherly ,, Platina, London. 

 John C. Ward . „ Brig Charlotte, Sydney." 

 As I was walking the poop of the wreck before look- 

 ing out for a 41 soft plank" to sleep on, I could not help 

 being struck with the wildness and singular nature 

 of the scene. A bright fire was blazing cheerfully 

 in the galley forward, lighting up the spectral- look- 

 ing foremast with its bleached and broken rigging, 

 and the fragments of spars lying about it. A few 

 of our men were crouched in their flannel jackets 



