The forgotten castaway

But can readers complete his astounding adventure story - brought to Looking Back 132 years later by a man who believes he is a descendant of shipwreck victim David Ashworth, who survived 18 months on the remote and virtually-barren Disappointment Island nearly 200 miles south of New Zealand?

In true adventure-book fashion, the amazing Mr Ashworth's tale even includes ocean-racing tall ships and sunken treasure.

But there are many missing chapters puzzling its narrator, 84-year-old Blackburn reader John Fowler.

This studio photograph of the story's hero has been in Mr Fowler's family from his boyhood and, he says, once belonged to his grandfather, also called John Fowler, a boot and shoe maker who had a shop at Bastwell, Blackburn.

"I was always told that it was of David Ashworth, who was a cousin of my grandfather, and that he was a seaman on a ship called the Dundonald which was wrecked south of New Zealand in 1866 while returning to Britain from Australia," he says.

"Sixteen survivors were cast away for 18 months, along with 16 from another ship which was wrecked in the vicinity just previously." The other was the American-flagged treasure-carrying clipper General Grant which, with more than 80 on board, was lost in freak circumstances in February that year. It was driven by high seas into a huge cavern on one of the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, 50 degrees South, and perished when the rising tide crashed its mainmast against the cavern roof and then drove it down through the hull. Ever since, the General Grant has been a magnet for numerous treasure-hunting expeditions.

As well as the gold on board belonging to miners it was carrying home from the Australian goldfields, it has long been suspected that nine tons of cargo listed as "zinc spelter" was secret government bullion going to the Royal Mint in Britain.

"I was told that the Dundonald was sunk while going to the assistance of the survivors of the General Grant," adds Mr Fowler, of Nares Road, Witton.

But the Dundonald's crew ended up sharing the 18-month ordeal of those who lived through the General Grant's loss - in the appallingly inhospitable conditions on Disappointment Island.

It was one of the lesser islands of the remote and uninhabited Auckland Islands archipelago lying on the so-called Great Circle shipping route from Australia. "The survivors caught and ate seals and made suits out of their skins, like the one David Ashworth is pictured wearing. The skins were sewn together with sinews from sea birds they also killed and ate and they used fish bones as needles," says Mr Fowler. But there is mystery mixed with this adventure.

For though Mr Fowler has a cutting, believed to be from a Liverpool newspaper, reporting the eventual rescue of the Dundonald's survivors, missing from the list of their names is that of David Ashworth.

"It makes me wonder whether the story that has been passed down through my family is right - and whether he was actually one of the General Grant's crew or passengers instead," Mr Fowler adds.

He has asked the City of London's Guildhall Library, where the records of shipping insurers Lloyd's of London are kept, if it can solve the puzzle and throw more light on the story. But can Looking Back readers help?

Mr Fowler's family roots are firmly in the Blackburn area so , more than likely, David Ashworth belonged there too.

He might have other descendants here who can flesh out this already-fascinating story.

Any clues?

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.