Portions of the wreckage were found on the
Brook Islands; her figurehead--the spread eagle of the United States--and
a seaman's chest were picked up on the beach here. Her windlass, with a
child's pinafore entangled with it--for the skipper had taken his wife and
two children to bear him company--drifted on the South Franklands, 40
miles to the north, and a large portion of the shattered hulk on a reef
eastward of Fitzroy Island, 25 miles still farther up the coast. Fate did
her worst for the poor MERCHANT, and not yet content, relentlessly
pursued two (if not more) of the vessels which sought to recover her
cedar, strewn on the treacherous sands of Ramsay Bay. Some of the logs,
however, drifted to our quiet coves, and portions remain sound to this
day. One more promising and accessible we beachcombed. It provided
planks for a punt, besides various articles of furniture, and gave me
some most practical homilies on contentment. Having found and duly
salvaged that log, it was necessary to cut it up; and then I began to be
thankful that pit-sawing was not forced upon me as a profession in the
days of inexperienced youth. Pit-sawing is deceptive.
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