ROMANCE OF 1870.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 3954, 10 June 1913, Page 6

ROMANCE OF 1870.

A PHOTOGRAPH FOUND IN GISBORNE. \ OLD MEMORIES REVIVED. INCIDENT IN TORRES STRAITS. A miniature photograph of • a pencilled sketch, made in the Torres Straits in 1870, turned up in Gisborne the other day, and it has attached to it a remarkable coincidence and a stirring story of the sea which will probably set alive tho mefnorics of some, of the older generation in our midst. Tho coincidence is that the photo is from a sketch by Mr George S. B. Budge, architect, now of Gisborne, and the story is of an incident of the Torres Straits*, concerning a search for the wife of a merchant captain, who alone with her infant son, had years before been spared from the butchery of a banct of looting natives. On a Coral Reef. The photograph shows the sketch to have been a remarkably vivjd one, depicting H.M.S. Blanche (Captain John E. Montgomerie) held fast on a coral reef in Torres Straits, in April 1870. and inscribed, “From a sketch by Geo. S. B/Budge, R.N.” The sketch is done with a remarkable clearness, the sea and cloud effects being drawn with a fidelity to nature. The good ship is seen with ?. li'.rcn to P ol ’., Jer now being almost clear of the water. Tho ship’s company aro alongside in boats and an improvised raft contains provisions and materials, taken from tho~wounded steamer, while a pearl-searching ketch is hove to at the stern, looking like the mouse which proffered help to the shackled lion. “Wreck of the Post Boy.” A “Times” representative called on Mr. Budge •yesterday and learned some interesting particulars, arising from the stranding of the Naval ship. Fourteen or fifteen years before 1870, the story begins, and from then occur a cycle of interesting events. At this" time, a merchant ship, the “Post Boy,” was hound from Australian to China, and was wrecked in Torres Strait, on Wednesday Island. She was subsequently looted and taken by a tribe of Natives. Everyone was murdered, excepting the wife of Captain Gascoigne and their infant boy. j The rmiortumu'.- woman and her child wore seen about the islands On various occasions, notably at Mount Ernest and Mount Augusta. Tn 1809 the Blanche went out on an errand to save the woman if possible, and the expedition was ashore, but its purpose failed through a marine’s rifle cracking out at a critical time, when the party was within a stone-throw of its quarry. To Save a Life. The Magistrate at Somerset (Mr Chester) advised the Government of what he had been informed regarding the missing people having been seen on Mount Ernest Island. The word was received scratched on a gold watch-case, this communication having come to hand by the pearling ketch Retrieve, owned and run by a man named Dixon. Thus, in 1870, the Blanche, which was attached to tho Australian Station, left Sydney for Torres Strait, staying only one day at Cape York. The ship then made for Mount Ernest ai’id Mount Augusta Islands, a keen look-out being kept from the time of entering the Straits to see if any canoes passed between the islands. When about half-way from Cape York and Mount Ernest, the goocf- ship struck a coral reef, which was marked on the chart “position doubtful.” The captain had given the chart mark a berth of about three miles, but fortune faded him and the vessel was hard held. She was not leaking, but was in very shallow water, and the fore top-gallant mast was broken. The boats were already armed and loaded with provisions, and they were got overboard, and the shells and ammunition were deposited under the surface of the water on the coral reef. All of Easter, 1870, was spent on the reef, and five days later she was freed from the reef and proceeded to Sydney.

“We’ll Remain a Fighting Ship.” During her stay on the reef practically' everything was put overboard, save sufficient coal for steaming home and the, guns which wore leaded and tallowed. The guns were held as long as possible in"accord with a determination, inherent in the. Naval forces, to remain a fighting ship to the,bitterest finish. Once she was right and refitted as well as possible, and the ammunition and other material possible taken aboard, the Blanche steamed to Sydney, having failed to accomplish her purpose, although every soul on board was hungry for tho fray and intent in rescuing the unfortunate woman and her child. But tlie fates ruled otherwise and Airs Gascoigne and her boy (13 years of ago in 1870) were resigned to a fearful fate away from the haunts of civilisation. Subsequent attempts to save her failed. Captain Morscby, for instance, took the Bassalic down in search. It was when the ship was in her sorry plight that Mr Budge conceived the idea and sketched the Blanche on a fairly large scale. It was the centre of admiration and was produced !>v illustrated papers in Sydney and shown in the city. Eventually Mr Budge made a present of the sketch to Captain AVainwright, of one of the Guards regiments, who had been travelling on the Blanche and was anxious for possession of the picture.

An Old Sailor's Surprise. Mr Budge sold the rights of photography to Mr Montague Scott, of Sydney, and had heard nothing of it until a well-preserved miniature by “Batt and Richards, Wellington, X.Z.,” was shown to him among some old photographs a few days since. And, Stranger still, it turns out that the photograph was in the possession locally of Mr Humphries, who had been on the “Rosario” of the same squadron as the “Blanche,” and had purchased an original photograph with the other sailors at Sydney. _ This sailor has been out of the service for forty years, and lie had the copy taken in "Wellington some time back. “It turned out in the strangest possible way,” says Mr Budge. “He was showing" me photographs and turned my old sketch over, saying ‘do you know this.’ ” * Mr Budge, his friends will be pleased to hear, is progressing from his indisposition caused by an accident, but he will, unfortunately, remain more or less a cripple.