As soon as they got hold of the rope we gave them, they hauled close up, and a little thin shrivelled old man came scrambling over the taffrail:  he was dressed in a long black serge coat, check shirt, and black trousers, and as soon as he had regained his breath, after the violent exertions he had made, presented me with a neat little basket containing some papers which he seemed very anxious I should examine.  I took them up, rather to please him, than with any expectation of being able to understand them, but to my surprise and great interest, found carefully rolled up in several envelopes, two pieces of lead pencil, part of the leaf of a Norie’s Navigation Tables, and some scraps of paper, on which, written in pencil, was a rough journal of the proceedings of the men who left the ill-fated Charles Eaton (soon after she was wrecked in Torres Strait) in one of her cutters, in which they reached this island, and after remaining for thirteen months got to Amboyna in a trading proa, and thence to Batavia, where they gave the following account of their misfortunes to the Resident, Mr. D.W.  Pietermaat.

WRECK OF THE CHARLES EATON.

The Charles Eaton sailed from Sydney on the 26th July, 1834, and on the 15th of August, about 10 o’clock in the forenoon, during a fresh full sail breeze, the vessel struck on a reef called the Detached Reef, situated at the entrance of Torres Strait.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CREW.

During the preceding night the Captain, as a measure of prudence, had ordered the first reef to be taken in the topsails, in order not to enter the passage before daylight.

The ship struck on the reef so violently, that both keel and rudder were instantly knocked off and carried away, and the Captain declared the vessel to be totally lost; at the same time giving orders to get the boats ready and furnished with provisions, in order to endeavour to reach the island of Timor.

At the time the vessel was wrecked, she had four boats, the longboat, two cutters, and a dinghy or small jolly boat.  In the largest cutter, W. Grindall, Laurent Constantine, and George Pigot, left the wreck, and Richard Quin, and James Wright, joined them the next morning by swimming across a bar or reef at the risk of their lives.

The other boats were knocked to pieces and lost, by the vessel falling over on her side, and they were unable to save any more of the passengers or crew, as it was impossible to pull the boat up against the strong current; and none of them would venture amidst the heavy breakers to reach the boat by swimming.  They were unable to state what became of the Captain, passengers, and rest of the crew; but at the time Richard Quin and James Wright left the wreck, all the passengers and crew were alive on the forecastle of the vessel, with the exception of one sailor named James Price, who was drowned by the smallest of the cutters swamping at the time she was lowered.