[ London Times ]
This newspaper, most correctly known simply as The Times, began publication in 1785 and continues to this day.
The September 21, 1797 edition of The Times carried the following gruesome news about the fate of a ship's Newf:
Arrived at Cowes the Johanna, of Embden, Capt. Reynhut, from Demerary. In lat. 32 long. 52 she fell in with the wreck of the Recovery schooner, JOHN FLUINS, Master, belonging to St. John's, Newfoundland. This vessel, in her passage to Barbadoes, laden with fish, was laid by a sudden gust of wind on her beam ends, when, in order to right her, and to save the crew, the masts and rigging were cut away. In this deplorable state, the Master and five men were left to the mercy of the elements, without any reserve of provisions, for 17 days, except a biscuit occasionally washed up from between decks. Three of the unhappy sufferers, for want of nutriment and water, soon paid the debt of Nature. FLUIN, the Master, and the surviving two seamen, were under the necessity of killing a faithful Newfoundland dog, the companion of their miseries, on which they subsisted some little time; though one of them solemnly declares that for seven days he did not receive the least food of any kind within his lips. Joy so overpowered the faculties of these wretched men, when they were discovered by Captain REYNHUT, that he could get no account of their misfortunes for more than a week. Their persons are so emaciated, that they would be with difficulty recollected by their friends, yet it is hoped that by proper attention, medical advice and restraint on their appetites, these objects of compassion and calamity may be restored to the enjoyments of health.