TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES ON A RAFT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIX, Issue 6869, 6 March 1883, Page 5

TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES ON A RAFT.

When the steamer Bahama went down while en route from Porto Bice tc Hew York, three men were left on the sinking vessel, they refusing to leave it, and it waa believed they went down with the wreck. One of them, Napoleon Mathurin, aged twenty-one, a Frenoh Canadian waa found on the. morning of Nov. 16, six days after the sinking of the ship, floating on a portion of the deck-house, about 500 miles from the Island of Bermuda. Mathurinlsastout, broad-shouldered, ruddy-faced man, about sft 6in high, and he tells the following story of his sufferings : I felt the vessel sinking rapidly, but held to a hawser on a broken spar, awaiting the result. She gradually sank lower and lower, drawing me down by the suction. I thought my time had come. The spar I held floated, and when I came to the surface nothing of the Bahama remained except the floating woodwork. I was nearly blinded by the waves, but I held to the piece of spar. Bising with the waves, I saw Binkner, the ship's porter, on a part of the for'ard deck* house, and swam for him, as it looked big enough for bath of ns, sad I could not hold on to my piece, it was so imall. Whan I reached Binkner and attempted to get on, he cried oat to me piteouely to go away. "We can't b»th live on this; get something else, for God's sake." He bad hardly uttered the words when a ware swept him off, and be* tween being stunned and exhausted by tha swim from the captain's boat when it upset to the ship, be was drowned, and I was powerless to save him. The darkness came on and nothing eould be seen of the others. There was nothing on the deck-house but myself, and I had nothing to eat but one pilot biscuit, which 1 put mmy breast. All night long the waves dashed over me, slapping me from one tide to the other when I attempted to move. I was lying flat on the boards, and not for a moment could I lose my grip on the two iron hooks that were on them. Ko sua rose on tbe second day, and the storm was not abated. I ate the biscuit, which was softened to a pulp, and it made me thirsty. The day was spent like the night. I kept a look-out for ships, but saw none; and when Svening came 1 was very much discouraged. luring the second night I broke off a door that was on the deck, and put it orsr me far shelter from the sea. I could not sleep for fear of being washed off. I was in the sureposition for four days, almost crazy ffoia thirst. Each day after the first I saw saiJis pasting, but my shouts and signals could net be heard or seen. It was awful. As scan as it was lijjht I began my daily look-out. I had not been looking long when I saw & sail about four miles off coming towards me. I waved my rtgnsl, and saw the ehip slowly approaching. When »he came within » ship's length of me a boat was lowered and 1 was taken in. I was under the impression until I got in here that I was tbe only on<> saved from the Bahama. Theodore Bange,, the first mate of the brig Pearl, who rowed out to rescue Mathurin, taid: " I never caw such a man in my life, sirs, as him we took, aboard."