A RESCUED SEAMAN'S STORY.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 120, 17 November 1902, Page 5

A RESCUED SEAMAN'S STORY.

Theodore F. Danielson, who was the only A.B. on the raft when she drifted ,away from the ship, said in reply to an interviewer : "I was below when the vessel struck, and the first intimation I had was hearing the look-out man cry 'All hands on .deck.' We rushed up on deck, and while doing so I heard a fearful crash below, which told us at once that the ship was gone. I rushed to the boats and helped to launch two, and to put women and children aboard them. 1 then helped to launch two rafts, getting aboard the t second. laere were nineteen on board that raft, but a boat came alongside and took three off, leaving sixteen. We were then terribly overcrowded, and our raft was very low in the water. ,We could see but a very short distance from us. We tried to make land, but could not do so. We had one sweep, one scull, and only one rowlock, but we made another out of the life-line suwounding the raft. "Several times we saw the island and endeavoured to reach it, but our raft was too unwieldry, and would not steer, nor were the oars sufficient to propel her in any direction. Through that night we vainly tried to .make land, and next morning we tried to get up to the land or to the other boats, but with no success. We sighted Cape Maria Van Diemen light away to the southward, and tried to make it, but the tide changed and swept us in a contrary direction. Finding that our efforts at making headway with the raft against the currents and tide were useless, we dropped a sea anchor — a bag attached to a rope — overboard, and let her drift. We had no food on board, with the exception of two apples which Mr. Wetherilt had in his pocket, and there was not a drop of fresh water. A fair-sized beaker was aboard, but it did not contain a single drop. "During Monday night we sighted a steamer, and we thought that she had observed us, for she stopped. Some of us thought that she put down a boat, which came towards us, but I did not see tihe boat. The steamer then got under way again and pa&sed out of sight. We werethen so terribly overloaded that there was not sufficient room for us to he down, and our weight was sufficient to sink the deck of the raft below the surface of the water, so that we were wet the whole time. Added to this, the sea< was very rough, and we were deluged wit3i the water, which swept over the raft. On Tuesday morning we took to the oars again and tried to make for North Cape, steeriag by the sun. Our efforts were of no avail, however, and as soon as the tide changed we drifted away in the opposite direction to that in which we were bound. "That day we suffered terribly from thirst. We had not noticed it so much on Monday, as the weather was foggy and the day cool, while our being moist kept us from feeMng thirsty to the extent that we did en Tuesday. That day the sun shone brightly, and it was very hot. During the evening we lost the first of our band, Dickson, a passenger, dying from exhaustion. A little later one of the men jumped overboard, and though we threw him- a lifebelt he refused to take it, and sank in a few minutes. When morning broke two more lay dead beside Dickson, vhese body we had kept aboard in the hope of being picked up or of making land. However, iv the morning we were obliged to bury him, along with the other two, wkose bodies were gentJy pushed overboard. "With four out of sixteen gone the raft lightened up, and when the others went her deck rose out of tke water, and, tho sea calming down, we kept a little drier arid were less uncomfortable. On Wednesday we suffered terribly. The last apple had been cjually divided, but the portion for each was so small that it was of little use, though we were devoutly thankful to obtain even so rktlc. During the afternoon another man went mad and jumped overboard, and at night still another slipped over the side and passed from sight. We , suffered horribly that night, and before morning Ellis, the second saloon stewaVd, died from exhaustion. In the morning Miss M'Guirk, the forecabin stewardess, also passed away, dying, quietly from exhaustion. She was veiy depressed and detpondeut fjr some time before death. It is a marvel to me that these two managed to hold on lo life so long, they were co thin and emaci- , ated.

• i?"J afternoon > at about 3 o'clock, we sighted a steamer. We had then been TW c V Way tt ° J tha north -east of the Three Kings, and had ahnost given up hope of being saved alive. The sight of noL n T r t h °r ver> « aye * s re "^«d nT'oiff* S °t ?P? P - and im P™vi S ed a Thf, T i ii a Sh - r t tied mto »a °ar. S*i f upnghfc t0 the raft. We fe£s^ TT™ £° min S towards ™. and felt sure that we had been sighted. Soon loweiTln^ Cl0 YdV d U3 « a boat ™ loweied and came to take us off The ship's doctor was in that boat and he had water, hot bovril, and brandy ready for us gl ving each a small portion We were then taken aboard the Penguia and "in St^t B^ ll^ by all 2M* in reply to a question as to the behaviour of the-men on the raft, Daniel- ? on d -" A « aa I saw they all be fhJm Z lly W r'- S f course > s °™ of them did peculiar things when their suffering drove theni mad?"