50 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

becoming warm and mild, and in the course of some eight days had entirely broken the ice up, and with the reflux of the tide the ice carried the vessel out of the harbor to the straits beyond. Word of this unfortunate circumstance having reached the owners of the vessel (which by this time had drifted in sight of Charlottetown) a volunteer crew, consisting chiefly of townsmen, was organized in order to bring her safely into port, and on the first day of the year 1816, there being no indication of danger, they set sail, headed by the owner and builders, with the intention of bringing into port the drifting vessel.

On reaching the ship they joyfully bounded over her bulwarks and immediately set to work ; some were soon engaged at one thing, and some at another. Towards the evening as the sun had descended the horizon the wind—which began to rise—suddenly changed to the northwest, increasing in violence at every blast, driving the helpless vessel upon the dangerous bar of St. Peter’s Island, where she plunged and tossed in the sea, straining her timbers to such an extent that she soon began to leak. About nine o’clock, p. m., she filled with water to her beams forcing her crew to the deck, where they were exposed to all the fury of the" tempest during the remaining hours of a cold winter’s night.

Daylight on the morning of the 2nd of January, broke in clear and frosty, and observing an open passage-way from the wreck to the Block House between the drift ice, they resolved to make for land with all possible speed with the bodies of two of the crew, George Foster and James Shellenwood,~—who suc- cumbed during the night. These were placed on board of one of the boats, and the unfortunate frost-bitten ones who were unable to help themselves in another. On landing from the wreck, Wood, one of the owners, became the third victim to the hardships and exposures of that dreadful night. The survivors were kindly treated by the military guard in charge of the Block House, although all were more or less frost-bitten, some being lame for life. Word of this calamity having reached the Town, a number of sleds were dispatched to the scene of misfortune to convey the sufferers to their homes, where in due time they all arrived without any further mishap.

* This narrative was obtained from one of the crew, James Pollard, father of the writer, who was born a native of Charlottetown, where he died in 1867, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.