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remained unconscious for many hours. When he left the Peninsula he had fully £500 in his possession, and when he reached England he increased his capital by lecturing on philosophical subjects. With a very powerful and acute mind, but of exceedingly erratic temperament, Harry Head narrowly missed being a great man.
No. 22.—The Loss of the Crest.
The well-known ketch Crest, Captain Ellis, left Akaroa one Sunday evening in October, 1868, loaded with telegraph poles, for a port to the north of Kaiapoi. She had on board Captain W. A. Ellis, master and part owner; J. B. Barker, part owner; Edward Cunningham, seaman; and Mr. W. Belcher, of the firm of Belcher & Fairweather, Kaiapoi, whowas passenger and charterer. The weather was fine when the vessel started, and no one dreamed that anything had gone wrong till the following day about noon, when Mr. J. B. Barker arrived in Akaroa, and stated that the vessel was wrecked, and that he was the only person who had escaped. He stated that he had managed to land in Flea Bay in the dingy, and that he had told the Messrs. Rhodes, who resided there, of the catastrophe.
This news was, of course, looked upon as final, every one thinking that the rest of the persons aboard the ill-fated Crest had come to an untimely end. Later in the day, however, the startling news was brought that two of the Rhodes had gone out in anything but a safe boat, to view the locality in which the vessel had been reported to be lost, and had rescued Cunningham from a rock to which he