EIGHT HOURS IN THE OCEAN.

North Otago Times, 3 November 1906, Page 2

EIGHT HOURS IN THE OCEAN.

Tho details of an extraordinary tale of the sea was received at Liverpool by Mr Joseph Hoult. the owner of tlie steamship Bcnshaw, which reached Genoa in the middle of August, The captain of the Bcnshaw wrote that early in the morning ol the 10th when the Bcnshaw was steaming about latitude 30.14 N„ loiißitiulc ti.lo W., great excitement was created on hoard when the look-out veiled that he saw a naked man swimming ill the sea. Not a soul was missing from the Bcnshaw, and though the night was clear there was no other ship in sight. Yet here was a man feebly keeping himself afloat and crying out for help. A lifebuoy was flung to the man, and' in as short a time as possible the Benshaw's way was stopped,, a boat lowered, and the stranger quickly rescued. He was verv much exhausted, but on recovery he told an almost incredible story. He said that he was Paul Scidler, Hungarian interpreter to the Cunanl liner Carpathia, then on a voyage from New York to Genoa, via .Gibraltar, and on the previous evening, about 8 o'clock, he cither fell or jumped overboard, and for the ensuing oight hours until he was rescued at 4 a.m. by the Bcnshaw ho had been paddling about in an apparently hopeless effort to save his life. In the afternoon of that day the Benshaw sighted the Carnathia coming from Gibraltar towards Genoa, and signalled the rescue of the man. Tho two vessels steamed together, and the man Seidler was transhipped by rowing boat to his own ship. .After his" disappearance the previous night the Carpathia cruised about for several hours watching for him, and eventually resumed her voyage, believing Scidler to have gone to tho bottom.