The wreck of the Seladon, a Norwegian bark from Stavanger, occurred on the night of 7 August 1896, when the ship ran aground on the shallow western barrier of Starbuck Island at a speed of seven knots.; ; . The crew of 16 men, led by Captain Actolf Jaeger, cast off from Newcastle on 13 July 1896, bound for Honolulu;; .; . the journey was expected to take 40 to 80 days. Following the wreckage, the crew of the ship sailed in lifeboats for nearly a month until they landed on Niulakita, then known as Sophia Island. The crew lived with Rotuman inhabitants of the island for just over 10 months before being rescued.
Background The Seladon was built in 1877 as a wooden three-masted full-rigger by the Jørgensen & Knudsen shipyard on Holmen Island, in the port city of Drammen, and was owned by Gustav Gundersen of Stavanger, who purchased the ship in 1878.; . It had a gross register tonnage of 1102 and a net register tonnage of 1066. It was converted from a full-rigger to a bark in 1894. The dimensions of the ship vary slightly in reports; by one account, it measured , and by another it measured .
Aftermath Post-wreck voyage The morning after the wreckage, the crew split off into two lifeboats of eight members each. They charted toward Malden Island, approximately northeast of the wreck site on Starbuck Island, but missed it; the crew attributed the miscalculation to the loss of their navigation tools (such as the sextant) in the wreckage, being left with only maps and compasses. They then changed course, aiming for Kiritimati (Christmas Island), approximately northwest of Malden Island, but again missed. The crew then sailed with the currents for the next several days, but on 18 August 1896, Captain Jaeger's gig capsized. Chief officer Kristian Neilson drowned, but all other crew members were picked up by the second boat.
Captain Jaeger died of exhaustion on 24 August 1896, and the crew threw his body into the water; he had been suffering from tuberculosis when the Seladon departed. The crew remained at sea with no sight of land for weeks, and their food and water supplies dwindled.
Sophia Island On 5 September 1896, 29 days after the wreckage of the Seladon, the crew spotted Sophia Island (Niulakita), approximately southwest of Starbuck Island; they drove into the island's reef, casting themselves ashore. They were met on the shore by Rotuman inhabitants of the island, two brothers (Dick, who went by the nickname Dill, and the other known as Belly) and their families, totaling ten people, with whom the Norwegians subsequently lived amongst for just over 10 months. They survived on coconuts, seabirds, and turtles, all of which were in abundance on the island.
The Rotumans were hired by the owner of the island, Samoan-based American businessman Harry Jay Moors, to take care of the island and prepare it for banana cultivation; they had resided there for over eight years. There had previously been over 60 workers on the island, but the majority had departed a few months prior to the arrival of the Norwegians, and the brothers and their families were the only group to stay behind. Given their employment, they spoke some English, and were therefore able to communicate with the castaway crew.
On 14 September 1896, ship carpenter Tollak Olsen Vestbø died from exposure accrued during the voyage. On 25 October 1896, Dill, the younger of the two Rotuman brothers, died of an infection.
Rescue In mid-July 1897, around 10.5 months after they had landed on Sophia Island, the remaining crew of 13 was rescued by the passing steamer Clyde of Suva, led by Captain Callaghan. They were taken back to Fiji, then transferred onto another ship to Sydney.
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