The rescue of the Bombay

When the Ship Bombay got struck by the fierce gale and lost its masts it was HMS Curacao that came to its assistance, below is the eyewitness account from a young navel officer on board that ship Cecil Folijambe, taken from his dairy and a actual sketch of the Bombay demasted …

We steamed out of Auckland Harbour for Sydney, at 7 P. M. on the 18th. We steamed along the Coast, calling in at Russell, Bay of Islands, the next morning; we stopped there one hour, but did not anchor. There were two Yankee whalers lying there. We left at 9.30 A. M. and went down to the entrance of the Bay, to fire shot and shell at the Nine Pin Rock, which is just off Cape Wiwiki, the North Head of Bay of Islands. Cape Wiwiki. Nine-pin Rock.

At 2 P. M., when about fifteen miles north of the Bay of Islands, we saw a large dismasted ship about north-east some fifteen miles distant, so we altered our course, and we came up with her about four o’clock, and found her to be the English ship Bombay, eighty-seven days out from the Lizard. She had four hundred and fifty emigrants on board, for Auckland, and had been dismasted in the cyclone which we had experienced on the 8th, 9th, and part of the 10th.

The Constance barque, from Adelaide and Auckland, had taken her in tow on the 10th, but on the 13th their tow-rope broke, and she was obliged to leave her; however, she got on pretty well, as, by that time, as her jury-masts had been rigged. The captain said he could get on very well so long as the wind held in that direction, and the weather was fine; in fact, he did not like to ask for assistance; but of course the Commodore could not leave four hundred souls to perish; for if a gale had sprung up they could not beat off a lee shore, so we took her in tow and proceeded at 5 P. M. for Auckland, where we arrived at 10 next morning.