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The Wreck of the Julia Ann BYU Studies Vol. 29, No. 2, Spring 1989 by John Devitry-Smith
Part Four
At this point, Captain Pond made a fateful decision that affected the whole party. In a strange turnabout and against all logic, he decided to row in the direction of the Society Islands: The trade winds blew less steadily, and all appearances indicated a change. Secretly influenced by a gloomy, undefined premonition of evil and disaster, as the result of my proposed attempt to reach the Navigator Islands, and having no charts--all of my charts were lost--I now determined on the apparently more desperate course of double banking the boat with a crew of ten men, and, watching a favorable opportunity, endeavor to pull to the nearest windward island. Against this course Capt. Coffin, an old whaler, opposed all his influence and experience--said he would rather venture alone than with ten months [mouths] to feed; that it would be impossible to pull our boat, so deeply loaded, against a head wind and sea. . . . That, in fact, it was a life or death undertaking--success or certain destruction awaited us. But desperate diseases require desperate remedies.90
Pond's idea was accepted by the crew with the exception of Chief Officer Coffin, whose experience, logic, and common sense outweighed his confidence in Pond. Coffin "said he was an old man, and preferred to die where he was."91 Nevertheless the decision had been made, and all waited "impatiently" for an opportunity to launch the boat.
Many passengers thought the captain should remain with them in case the attempt failed, and to satisfy those remaining Pond proposed to stay with them, but the crew adamantly objected, stating they would not leave without him. All agreed the captain had led them successfully this far and he should continue to do so. There would be no second chances, and all hopes of rescue lay with the captain and his men being able to row the quarterboat hundreds of miles, find a ship, and come back to rescue the others.
On 3 December, almost seven weeks after the wreck, Captain Pond was awakened by Second Mate Owens and informed that for the first time since their arrival on the island the wind was blowing from a westerly direction. After a stormy night, the clouds hung heavy and overcast with a drizzly rain still falling. Pond hesitated for a long moment then gave the order. The day of departure and hopeful deliverance had finally come, and Pond with nine other men, including John McCarthy and Charles Logie, prepared to leave. Their provisions consisted of two casks of water, a little salt pork salvaged from the wreck, and some jerked turtle. When all had climbed aboard, the boat was almost level with the water and there was a great danger of being swamped in the waves breaking over the reef. Providentially, they succeeded in getting safely over the breakers and were cheered on by those ashore.
After three days of steady progress, their greatest fear was realized when the wind blew up again from the east and storm clouds began to gather. Nevertheless, they continued rowing. The captain sat at the helm steering and trying to inspire his men despite the obvious odds against them. Pond later wrote a letter to his niece Orella recounting what they all thought were their final days of mortality:
For hours, and hours, the fearful but unequal contest, was maintained, 'till human endurance could bear up no longer, and we lay exhausted in the bottom of our little boat, now floating at the mercy of the sea. The goal of our hopes, and our very lives, that dim cloud upon the verge of the horizon, gradually faded from our view! Oh! the blank despair of that moment; and as we drew the tarpaulin over the boat, to shelter us from the dashing spray, thoughts of home mingled in our prayers; for the sailor, in his hour of peril, never forgets his youthful home. . . . Thus for hours we were driven at the mercy of the raging wind and sea, but not forgotten by a kind Providence.
Late in the afternoon, as we lay huddled together, under the protecting cover of the tarpaulin, drenched by the salt spray, faint and exhausted by severe toil, listlessly gazing out upon the combing, raging sea, that threatened instant destruction, the sudden cry of "land! land!" . . . Tears of gratitude filled our eyes.92
After four days of hard rowing night and day, they had reached Bora-Bora. They spent two annoying hours of rowing outside the reef looking for an entrance then determined to attempt to go directly through the breakers. A native who was spearing fish observed their difficulties and motioned them farther up the reef. Shortly thereafter, they found a fine harbor and a small native village.93 The natives at first were suspicious, thinking the men pirates, but nevertheless gave them a good meal of poi and breadfruit. Their attention then turned to the welfare of their stranded company.94
There was no ship available at Bora-Bora large enough to attempt the rescue. Pond attempted to persuade the captain of a small native schooner to take him to Tahiti, but the captain became suspicious and instead sailed to Maupiti and informed the king of the newly arrived strangers. In the meantime, Pond had sent part of his crew to Riatia with a letter to the British consul asking for immediate assistance.95 The consul, Mr. Chishom, had no way of contacting the United States consulate at Tahiti. Feeling the situation an urgent one, he sent a message to Captain Latham, master of the schooner Emma Packer,96 which was docked at the nearby larger island of Huahine waiting for a load of oranges.97 A plan was devised in case no help could be found there that John McCarthy and two of the crew would go to Maupiti to try to find a boat.98 Fortunately, Captain Latham responded to the request for assistance without delay, only touching long enough at Bora-Bora to take Captain Pond aboard and thereafter making directly for the Scilly Isles.99
On 2 December 1855, sixty days after being shipwrecked, the forty-one castaways still on the island "in a state of anxious suspense, thinking continually of the success of our company" sighted the Emma Packer.100 Returning missionary John Eldredge writes, "I need not attempt to describe our feelings of gratitude and praise which we felt to give the God of Israel for His goodness and mercy in thus working a deliverance for us."101 The ship lay a short distance from the island for a day and a night, then came closer in and sent a boat.102 All survivors were taken aboard the Emma Packer, and early the following morning they sailed for Huahine, arriving there 11 December 1855. Here they saw the grave of Sister Allen, who had died on the previous successful voyage of the Julia Ann. After a stay of three days, they continued on to Tahiti, arriving 19 December.103 The survivors "arrived in a most destitute condition, having saved literally nothing from the wreck; from the captain down to the cabin boy." They were all shoeless and had "barely sufficient clothing to cover their persons."104 Many of the children had spent their time swimming and playing along the beach and were almost as dark as the natives.
With the loss of all worldly goods, the party expected to be provided for by the American or English consuls until they could find a way to continue on to the United States; however, the American consul said they were not authorized to make provisions available to English citizens, and the English consul refused on the grounds that they were on an American ship. Fortunately, the United Board of Masonic Lodges showed great compassion and took immediate measures to relieve the destitute party's wants by providing shelter and food for all.105
A ship stopped at Tahiti on its way to Sydney in late February 1856, and letters were sent back to President Farnham explaining details of the disaster. This news was not received until 30 March 1856 and "cast a sad gloom over the mission."106 The news of the Julia Ann disaster reached Brigham Young 30 April 1856. President Young gave instruction by letter to George Q. Cannon asking Charles C. Rich for means to bring the stranded Saints to San Francisco, but apparently nothing came of this.107 In the fourteenth General Epistle of the Presidency, Brigham Young recounted the event and the loss of five persons, adding, "the remainder barely escaped with their lives." A general word of caution was then issued:
Without reflection upon the officers of the Julia Ann all of whom are well spoken of by our brethren, or even upon the strength and sea worthiness of the vessel which we understand was good and new, still we wish to caution our Elders, not only those in Australia but all in foreign countries, not to permit an over anxiety to emigrate and gather with the Saints to make them careless or indifferent to the kind and condition of the vessel in which they embark, nor to the character of the officers and crew on board. This is the second instance of vessels, sailing from that mission with Saints on board, not reaching their destination. In the other case no lives were lost, though the vessel had to put into port where she was condemned and the Saints, after having paid their passage to the western coast, were left on the Sandwich Islands. It is a matter worthy of record, and a source of great joy and satisfaction to us, that in all our foreign emigration those are the only losses by sea, of that character, that have occurred.108
James Graham and John Eldredge decided to return with the Emma Packer to Huahine and, after remaining there one month, met with the opportunity of continuing on to Honolulu aboard different whaling ships.109 The two met again in Honolulu, where they found some of the seventy-two Mormons who had sailed from Melbourne, Australia, 27 April 1855, aboard the Tarquinia.110 A number of passengers from the Tarquinia paid Eldredge's and Graham's passage to San Francisco aboard the Francis Palmer, which departed Honolulu 1 April 1856 and arrived in San Francisco after a twenty-three day passage.111
John McCarthy, after borrowing two small schooners from King Tapoa at Maupiti, found that Captain Pond had already taken everyone from the island twelve hours previous and so returned the schooners to Maupiti. McCarthy, never one to miss an opportunity, turned his attentions to sharing his beliefs with those on Maupiti. Before long he had baptized a Captain Delano, King Tapoa's interpreter, and through Delano was able to preach to the natives. After a stay of about three weeks at Maupiti, he sailed to the island of Raiatea where he baptized a Mr. Shaw and Mrs. Showers, ordaining Shaw an elder before he left. After spending two weeks at Raiatea, he continued on to Tahiti in a French sloop and from there on to San Francisco, arriving 14 April 1856. John McCarthy married Eliza Telford in 1858 and eventually settled in Smithfield, Utah, where he had nine children. He returned to his homeland of Ireland as a missionary in 1877. McCarthy, truly one of the great early Mormon figures in Australia, died 25 August 1898 at Smithfield.112
The Saints remaining at Tahiti were kept by the Freemasons' lodge until 19 January 1856, when they could no longer feed them. The party again solicited the help of the English consul, who agreed to feed them until the end of February. In late February, Charles Logie, his wife and child, along with Peter Penfold and family, and orphans Maria Harris, Frank Humphries, and Eliza Humphries, all embarked for San Francisco.113 After living for a time in San Bernardino, the Logie family eventually settled in American Fork, Utah. The Penfold family also made it safely to Utah. Maria Harris was probably reunited with her father, who left Sydney aboard the Jenny Ford in May 1856 and later settled near Payson, Utah.
The Anderson family with their seven children, the last of the shipwrecked company, sailed from Tahiti 5 May 1856 on the G. W. Kendall, arriving in San Francisco 27 June 1856 after a tedious passage, nine months after leaving Sydney.114 Ironically, the Andersons would never make it to Utah after fifteen years in Australia, which Andrew referred to as "this my exile."115 Andrew Anderson, the first recorded Mormon in New South Wales, joined the RLDS church on 2 August 1868 and was ordained a priest the following year at Washington, Alameda County, California. He lived near Mission San Jose. He died 1 January 1891, age eighty-one, while visiting his daughter at Petaluma.116 His wife Elizabeth died 21 January 1894.117
Captain Benjamin Pond was forcibly detained in Tahiti by the French government at the request of the British consul, who felt Pond was still responsible for his passengers and was obligated to find a way for them to continue on to California. After numerous requests, Pond was eventually released and sailed for Panama and then on to San Francisco.118
All accounts of the disaster speak highly of Captain Pond and the crew, whose determination, courage, and quick thinking greatly reduced the loss of life. The account of Esther Spangenberg is typical and a fitting conclusion to this remarkable story:
Next to God, our thanks are due to Captain Pond, his officers and crew, for their noble exertions on our behalf. They fearlessly risked their lives in endeavoring to do all in their power to save the passengers. For one moment neither the Captain or his officers ever lost their presence of mind. Had they done so, the loss of life would have been great.119
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When John Devitry-Smith was a senior in engineering at Brigham Young University, he wrote this article.
John was from Molong, New South Wales, Australia.
Related to the article, John expressed his gratitude “to Steve Ngatai, Harvey Guy, Margaret Pratt, and his parent for their inspiration that made this article a reality.”
The article is well documented and represents excellent study and research.
Obtain a copy of the original article for a copy of the footnotes.
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