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The Mercury, Hobart,
Tuesday 22 July
1890
Mssrs Facy and Fisher have been advised by
cablegram
from Batavia of the safety of their barquentine Guiding Star.
She
left Mauritius on the 7th May, and her non-arrival caused much anxiety.
All doubts about the safety of the vessel are now set at rest. She is
anchored
at Anjer near Batavia, but the cause of her putting into that port was
an outbreak of fever which totally disabled the crew. Captain J. Ikin
succumbed,
the mate Isaac Lear, the steward Williams; and one seaman was also
struck
down by the fell disease. Tossing about with no-one to control her
movements,
she was sighted by the ship Lancefield and conveyed in
safety
to the port. The following are copies of the cablegrams received by the
owners, delayed no doubt by the breakage in the wires. "'Batavia July 11th, Guiding Star anchored near Batavia. Captain, Mate, steward and one sailor dead. Rest of crew disabled. Saved by ship Lancefield.' The one absorbing topic in Hobart for the past three weeks has been the non-arrival of the Guiding Star. The news received yesterday cast an awful gloom over the place... "Mauritius fever is a disease easily contracted in that island and quick in its results." GUIDING STAR left Hobart 11th February, arrived Adelaide 17th February. Sailed March 8th, with flour, arrived Port Louis April 17. Left with sugar 7th May. GUIDING STAR built Banff, November 1869 length 117 ft. tonnage 249, crew 10. Mate Isaac Lear age 44, Captain Joshua Ikin, age 53. The mate Lear was born in Hobart, his father being in business as a baker. He served an apprenticeship with Mr Wiseman, saddler, now in Auckland. Lear then entered the whaling trade, the last vessel on which he was engaged being the Aladdin, on which he occupied the position of chief officer and navigator. He was afterwards mate of the brig Fairy Rock and later walked the deck of the Camilla. On the Empress of China he served with Captains William and Milford MacArthur, Evans and Chaplin, being on that vessel when she was |
wrecked on the Pyramid Rock on
December 31st
1888. He later on joined the barques Marie Laurie and Pet,
and the barquentine Guiding Star. He [also] leaves a widow and
six
children, most of them of tender years, the eldest being a girl of
about
fifteen years of age. Flags were half-masted yesterday out of respect to the deceased seamen. The Mercury Wednesday 29th October
1890.
(Alexanderr Murray, A.B., first to catch the fever, arrived in Hobart from Batavia yesterday.) "... All that time I was lying in my bunk
suffering, but
I did not like the Captain to go without seeing him so I asked to be
allowed
to do so. Mr Lear, the mate, assisted me to go aft... [The Master]
passed
away Sunday and the crew buried his remains. We had no prayer book and
performed no special burial service, the only words being used by the
crew
being "God rest his soul, Amen." Though the Skipper was dead we had no
misgivings about the safety of the vessel, for the mate attended to the
navigation. But after Captain Ikin's death, Mr Lear began to show signs
of the fever, and as it got a proper hold of him he had to give up
work.
He succumbed about 12 days after the Captain. I was just able to move
about
the forecastle a little, being still very bad. When the mate died his
body
was carried on to the poop to be sewed up in canvas. I managed to crawl
to the door of the forecastle to have a look at the corpse, and saw the
men at work on the shroud. Such sights and surroundings were not
at all conducive to my recovery, but I felt strength returning
slowly." Note: Mauritius Fever is Yellow Fever Return to Lear page |