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.