DECK BELOW WATER.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LX, Issue LX, 31 December 1910, Page 9

DECK BELOW WATER.

SEAMEN'S TERRIBLE STRUGGLE.

How four men. of the wooden schooner Florence Leland fought death for nearly a fortnight in the Atlantic, with their deck awash and their provisions uneatable) was told at Liverpool last month, when the men' were put ashore by the Harrison liner Commodore. The Florence Leland sailed from Nova Scotia laden with laths for Philadelphia. A few days from port they encountered terrible weather. Every stitch of canvas was blown away, and then the ship sprang a serious leak. Th 4 gasolene engine was set pumping, but it utterly failed to .cope 1 with the inrush of water", whioh rose until there were several inches in the deck cabin itself. . Still the men worked wildly, jettisoning all the deck cargo until their bleeding finger-tips hafci been worn to thft bon<* bf the rough wood as they threw the laths overboard. Their provisions were saturated and rendered uneatable, and the men were almost dead with exhaustion and exposure to th« fierce wind and the waves, that nearly swept them away. For ten days they battled in this way. Then their torches, which they burned through the night as signals of distress, attracted an Italian schooner. It came so close (so Captain Holden, master of the Florence Leland, stated) that he was able to shout the message that his ship was waterlogged, the provisions destroyed, and hi» men urgently in need of assistance. "I did not understand what the Italian captain 'said/ Captain Holden declared, "but he first nearly ran us down, and then, sheered off and disappeared, leaving us to die like rats." As a last resort the men burned a barrel full of tar-covered material, and this brought a more seamanlike rescuer to their aid, in the shape of the Commodore. The crew of the waterlogged ship were picked up from their own boat, which the Commodore hoisted on board. All of them, including the master, 4 were absolutely exhausted when they were taken* on board, and they had lost all their belongings.