Next morning seven volunteers launched one of the whaleboats, boarded the steamer, took in provisions, made a lug out of a piece of canvas, hoisted the Union Jack to the mainmast upside down, and pulled safely away from the ‘Clonmel’ against a head wind.  They hoisted the lug and ran for one of the Seal Islands, where they found a snug little cove, ate a hearty meal, and rested for three hours.  They then pulled for the mainland, and reached Sealer’s Cove about midnight, where they landed, cooked supper, and passed the rest of the night in the boat for fear of the blacks.

Next morning three men went ashore for water and filled the breaker, when they saw three blacks coming down towards them; so they hurried on board, and the anchor was hauled up.

As the wind was coming from the east, they had to pull for four hours before they weathered the southern point of the cove; they then hoisted sail and ran for Wilson’s Promentory, which they rounded at ten o’clock a.m.  At eight o’clock in the evening they brought up in a small bay at the eastern extremity of Western Port, glad to get ashore and stretch their weary limbs.  After a night’s refreshing repose on the sandy beach, they started at break of day, sailing along very fast with a strong and steady breeze from the east, although they were in danger of being swamped, as the sea broke over the boat repeatedly.  At two o’clock p.m. they were abreast of Port Philip Heads; but they found a strong ebb tide, with such a ripple and broken water that they did not consider it prudent to run over it.  They therefore put the boat’s head to windward and waited for four hours, when they saw a cutter bearing down on them, which proved to be ‘The Sisters’, Captain Mulholland, who took the boat in tow and landed them at Williamstown at eleven o’clock p.m., sixty-three hours from the time they left the ‘Clonmel’.

Captain Lewis, the harbour master, went to rescue the crew and passengers and brought them all to Melbourne, together with the mails, which had been landed on the island since known by the name of the ‘Clonmel’.

For fifty-two years the black boilers of the ‘Clonmel’ have lain half buried in the sandspit, and they may still be seen among the breakers from the deck of every vessel sailing up the channel to Port Albert.

The ‘Clonmel’, with her valuable cargo, was sold in Sydney, and the purchaser, Mr. Grose, set about the business of making his fortune out of her.  He sent a party of wreckers who pitched their camps on Snake Island, where they had plenty of grass, scrub, and timber.  The work of taking out the cargo was continued under various captains for six years, and then Mr. Grose lost a schooner and was himself landed in the Court of Insolvency.