1841

Loss of the Schr. Col. Crockett — Captain eaten by African Cannibals. — The Newburgh Journal of Saturday {March 6] gives an interesting narrative of the loss of this schooner, Capt. Austin.  It seems that the vessel sailed from Newburgh on the 29th of June, on a trading voyage to the coast of Africa and the neighboring Islands.  In May last she entered Delago river and sailed up that stream nearly 100 miles, where the Captain opened a trade with the natives, and having succeeded in completing a valuable cargo of ivory, gold dust, ostrich feathers, shell, ebony wood, &c., was returning to the Bay with the intention of coming immediately home, when the vessel unfortunately grounded on a bar at the mouth of a river.  On her way down the river most of the crew were taken sick with the fever of the country, and the remainder were unable to haul off the vessel.  The captain and a part of the crew then attempted to proceed in a boat for assistance to the Portuguese settlement at English River, sixty miles from the place of the disaster, but they could not pass the surf.  Mr. Reed, the second mate, then volunteered to accompany the Captain over land.  It was unfortunately determined to go unarmed, so as to afford the natives less temptation for molesting them.  At first they were treated kindly, but towards night, after travelling about 26 [or 36] miles, the savages fell upon them with spears, killed the captain, and wounded the mate so severely that they supposed him to be also dead.
    Mr. Reed states that he presented his [illegible] received most of the spears in his arm.  One, however, struck him near his eye, and he for a time remained senseless.  On his recovery he observed the negroes cutting up and roasting, and making their supper on the body of the captain.  He lay [illegible] until night, when the cannibals fell asleep — then crept into the bush and made his escape to the schooner, which he reached in miserable condition.  A few days after the return of Mr. Reed with the melancholy intelligence of the murder of Captain Austin, Mr. Daniel Wood, of Poughkeepsie, chief mate, Robert McTurk, of this village, Robert Blainey, and John Fowler, a colored seaman of this place, died of fever.
    A part of the survivors, burying their dead companions in the sand of the beach, again took the yawl, and making another attempt, succeeded in getting through the surf and reaching the settlement on English River, from whence another boat was sent to the schooner, which returned with the sick that were left on board.  The Governor subsequently despatched a boat to the wreck with a crew of six or seven natives to save a portion of the cargo.  It was loaded with some of the most valuable articles, but in returning the boat was swamped, and all on board perished.
    Only three of the company survive — Charles Wilson, (shipped in a foreign port,) and David Baker [?], a lad, the only person living of the crew that left this village in 1839, went on board the English iron [?] steamer Nemesis, and subsequently got on board of a Stonington whale ship, which arrived last week.  Baker got back to Newburgh last Thursday.  David Reed, the second mate, not having sufficiently recovered from his wounds and the fever, was at Delago Bay.
    Captain Austin and Mr. Wood were highly esteemed by the citizens of Newburgh.  They made several voyages in the ships Portland and [illegible] in the employ of the Newburgh Whaling Company.  On their return from the last cruise of these ships, they projected the voyage, the melancholy result of which are above recorded, and which until the schooner grounded at the bar of the river on her return, had been very successful: her cargo at the time being worth twenty or thirty thousand dollars.  They had experienced no sickness until a few days previous to that unfortunate occurrence.  There was no insurance on the vessel or cargo, which was owned by the captain and Mr. Wood and two or three citizens of Newburgh.
    Newark Daily Advertiser (Newark, New Jersey), March 10, 1841, p. 2, col. 6
1841-03-10 -- Newark Daily Advertiser (Newark, New Jersey) • p. 2, col. 6

        Delago Bay: Delagoa Bay, on the southeast coast of Mozambique, East Africa,     near the South African border.  [Encyclopaedia Britannica]