News of the wreck of the Ella B took six weeks to make it to the newspapers. The full story is in the Chicago Daily Tribune, 23 Nov., 1878.
SHIPWRECK.
Special Dispatch to The Tribune.
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Nov. 22.--The Norwegian bark Victor, Capt. Hensen, came into port with the shipwrecked crew of the British brig Ella B. on board, whom she had picked up at sea in an exhausted and almost dying condition, on the 13th of October last. The Ella B., Capt. Samuel McLean, and nine seamen, sailed from Liverpool early in October for Prince Edward's Island. On the 9th a great hurricane came up. The brig heaved, pitched, rolled, dipped, fell over on its side, tossed and swayed till the masts began to break, and finally to snap like pipe-stems. The Captain and crew with axes endeavored to clear the wreck. While engaged in this work they were suddenly knocked off their feel by a great heave, and the ship stood with its bow in the air and its stern in a mighty chasm below. When the ship fell and the waves washed over its deck It was found one man was missing. He had been washed overboard. The ship was leaking in many places, and began to fill with water. The Captain and the crew abandoned her in a small boat. The sea was running so high that it was with the greatest difficulty the boat could be kept afloat. They made a drag-anchor with an empty clothes-bag and thirty fathoms of line attached, and threw it overboard. By this means they managed to keep the boat up to the wind. Every man was kept at the oars. Twice the water rushed over them and filled the boat. With their hats and hands they bailed it out. Twice the boat began to sink, when the men threw over clothing, provisions, and everything but the clothing they wore to save themselves. The wind began to fall at length, but they were without food, cold, and almost dead with exhaustion. For eighty-four hours they were at sea in this condition. No signs of rescue were visible. Death seemed only a matter of a short time. The men went dropping their oars in despair, when suddenly one of their number sighted a vessel. It was the Norwegian Victor, from the Port of ****? Sound, bound for Philadelphia. A signal was made, which the vessel saw, and it bore down upon them. Capt. Hensen, of the Norwegian vessel, lowered his boat and took the wet, starving, and almost dying men on board. From that time till their landing in Philadelphia yesterday, the Norwegian Captain and his crew treated the shipwrecked men in the kindest possible manner. Vice-Consul Crump, of the British Government at this port, has received the crew, and will provide for them, and send them to their homes in Prince Edward's Island. They are almost entirely destitute of clothing.
In the parliamentary report I posted earlier the crew number appears to be an 8 rather than a 3, which would make more sense considering the size of the vessel.
Perhaps your relative, or someone else, read in the news about the loss of the Ella B, and assumed it was his Ella. The Ella B was a new vessel, five months old, first registered on 9 May, 1878, at Prince Edward Island.
http://www.islandregister.com/1878newvessels.htmlRex.
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