[ London Times ]
This newspaper, most correctly known simply as The Times, began publication in 1785 and continues to this day.
The edition of May 26, 1838, carried a news items regarding a calamitous shipwreck.
A ship carrying supplies to British troops in Canada, including 12 horses, was caught in a storm off the southwest coast of Ireland shortly after setting out from Cork, Ireland, where it had last picked up supplies. Of the 41 people on board, including a number of women and children, only 2 survived to tell the tale.
Struck by a gale, the ship ran aground on rocks near Cape Clear Island at the southwest tip of Ireland; the captain and his wife and child were the first to be washed overboard and lost at sea. Everyone remaining on board sought refuge in the bow of the ship except for 2 sailors who lashed themselves to the mainmast. Fortunately for them, it broke free during the storm — they survived while everyone else on board perished.
After the mast broke free, the two sailors found themselves drifting helplessly through the stormy night...
Exposed to the fury of the sea, the pelting of the snow-storm, and enveloped by the deepest shades of night, the mast to which they were lashed continued to drive in the direction of Cape Clear until 6 o'clock a.m., when they perceived a large dog of the Newfoundland breed, which had belonged to the unfortunate chief mate, swimming towards them, and which they contrived to place on the mast beside them. In this helpless condition they remained till half-past 10 a.m., when they reached the shore, well nigh exhausted. The sagacious brute which accompanied them immediately on landing set off to a preventive station, where, by the singularity of his actions, it attracted the attention of four of the coast-guard, who were eventually induced to follow it, which circumstance led to the discovery of the suffering mariners.