A SHIPWRECKED CREW SAVED BY A YACHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8556, 2 May 1891, Page 2 (Supplement)

A SHIPWRECKED CREW SAVED BY A YACHT.

1400 MILES IN AN OPEN BOAT WITH-

OUT SIGN OF A SAIL. Mr. and Mrs. W. James, who are making a pleasure tour in the West Indies on board their yacht the Lancaster Witch, rescued six shipwrecked sailors, who for fourteen days have been buffeted about in a small boat on the ocean, half-drowned and halfstarved, and now owe their safety solely to the fact that Mr. and Mrs. James sighted their waterlogged coble, and at once rendered prompt assistance from the yacht. The Lancashire Witch was en route from Barbadoes to Trinidad, when a small boat was seen flying signals of distress. The yacht was at once brought to, and when the boat drifted under the lee quarter two of the crew jumped into it with ropes. With great difficulty, owing to their weakness from want of food and exposure, the six men in the coble were safely landed on the deck of the Lancashire Witch, and all the comforts of the.yacht placed at their disposal. They informed their deliverers that they were part of the crew of the Carribon, bound from Brazil to Liverpool, which foundered on January 20. The hands, fourteen in number, got into the two boats, seven in each —one in command of the captain and the other of the mate. They kept together for live days, and then lost sight of each other. The sailors saved by the Lancashire Witch were those in charge of the captain. They had been in the boat for fourteen days, their chief provisions during that time consisting of flying-fish, which were attracted to them in the night-time, when their lamp was alight. Two days before the yacht sighted them they had divided their last biscuit, and had given up all hope of rescue. One —a negro—jumped overboard the next night in despair, and was drowned. The captain stated to Mr. and Mrs. Jame3 that their boat must have drifted 1400 miles, and during that time they had not sighted a single sail. All the sailors were ill and helpless, and one of them calmly stated that had rescue not arrived he was determined to have ended his sufferings by jumping overboard that night. What had become of the other boat no one had the faintest idea. But for the timely aid which came to then?, in all probability they would have drifted under the wind towards tho Venezuelan coast, and been dashed against the rocks by the heavy seas which usually prevail there.