Graham Ritchie
Film God
Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted April 11, 2018 10:47 PM
There is a town not far from where I once lived, that ran a recent and interesting article in the paper "came across on the net" about the descendants from a survivor John Paul, who at 11 years of age and along with six others, were to be forced off a ship the "Arran" that they had stowed away on, that was sailing from Greenock on the Clyde to Quebec and onto a icefield of Newfoundland with little more than a biscuit each.
The descendants in the article, were going to pay a visit to the harbour where back in 1868 that ship had sailed from. Two of the yougsters aged 11 and 12 did not survive the icefield, and it was only good fortune that a lady on the shore saw them, and were rescued, however with little clothing and some in bare feet they were is a bad way.
As the story unfolded it was found that both the captain and mate of the Arran had starved and beaten those young stowaways over three months at sea. When the news reached Greenock and the ship later returned there, a large crowd were waiting, and as such the captain and mate locked themselves in there cabins until the police boarded the ship and arrested them on a charge of murder.
The five survivors went onto have lives in the UK, America, Canada, and Australia. What was interesting about this long lost story was even after 150 odd years, the descendents were going to commemorate those seven young stowaway's, and especially those that on the iceflow who did not survive.
The Arran..
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