A THRILLING TALE OF THE SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11950, 26 April 1902, Page 2 (Supplement)

A THRILLING TALE OF THE SEA.

One of the weirdest tales of the sea has just been recounted in the Admiralty Court beI fore Mr. Justice Barnes and the Trinity Musters, the tale, therefore, being as true as it's strange. The events here recorded took place last year, but they only became pubt licly known when Mr. Justice Barnes awarded, as a result of the friendly action referred to, the sum of £642 153 to Mr. Redley Bryant out of the salvage of the German barque Planet. Mr. Bryant was second officer on board the Crown Point of Liverpool, a steamship of 5219 tons gross register. At about half-past eight a.m. on May 14 last the vessel was on u voyage from Philadelphia to London with a general cargo, including cattle, and a crew of thirty-seven hands, when she sighted the German barque Planet in lat. 49 degrees 36 minutes north, and long. 13 degrees, 30 minutes west. SIGNALS OF DISTRESS. "The barque," says Sir. Bryant, "was flying signals meaning 'Can you take me in tow?' This was an unusual request, and we bore down on her. When within hailing distance we discovered that she was German, and with considerable difficulty gathered the information that there was sickness on board. We learned that the chief mate was already dead, the captain was insane and dying, and the second officer was very seriously ill. Captain Wall, of the Crown Point, sent the chief officer, Mr. Walter Lord, to investigate, and that plucky officer went on board the stricken ship. On his return he reported that the crew were suffering from scurvy, and he gave such a had account that the captain decided to take the barque in tow. Accordingly I was sent on board to take charge of her, for none of the crew understood navigation. After paying out sixty fathoms of chain the towage commenced. Captain Wall sent all the fresh provisions he could spare and towed me for about two hours. There was a very choppy sea on, and at the end of that time the wire parted under the strain. The captain came hack in the steamer and told me to make the best of my way to Queenstown or Falmouth. LEFT AMINE ON THE VESSEL. "When the steamer disappeared the loneliness was' terrible. 1 wanted someone to talk to. The whole thing seemed like a bad dream, but it soon became real enough, and I had plenty to think about. The first thing to be done was to get the broken wire and chain on board, but the crew were 100 weak to heave it in so 1 slipped forty-five fathoms of chain and made sail. When this was done I proceeded to explore the ship. I opened the door of the cabin which had been occupied by the mate, who died about eight days before, and the dead man's dog Hew savagely at my legs. He could not bite me as I was wealing seaboots, and the sailmaker, my interpreter, said, 'It was much better that he did not bite you proper, because he has been two weeks already mad.' I also thought it was much better, and I wanted to destroy the pool brute, but the crew were all so fond of him that 1 let him live, and he recovered in a week." Later on the dog seems to have been a great companion to Mr. Bryant, for on May 22 his daily diary records, " Dog all right again—am writing this to occupy my mind —dog looking at me." Mr. Bryant found the captain in a wild stale of delirium and the second mate was gasping for breath in his room, lie was unable to take any food. " The crew were in an awful state from the terrible disease. Their teeth were loose, their tongues swollen, and they breathed with difficulty. The medicines on the ship were in bottles bearing German labels, and I was afraid to use them, but I found some castor oil, with which I felt safe, and of which I made good use. I had also brought some stimulants and a. lot of limejuice, which I administered. The crew were so weak that my presence was continually necessary oil de'ek. and I never had more than one hour and a-halfs sleep at a time. The rats ran over me and the ravings of the dying captain awoke me. On Thursday I sat up with him through the night. There was not the •slightest hope, and he died at four o'clock on Friday morning." A SHARK ALONGSIDE. Mi. Bryant says that the funeral scene made a vivid impression upon him. It took place in a flat calm which lasted for three days. The vessel was enveloped in de»'se fog. Right aft the men were grouped together. Amidships stood the solitary mate for the German whom he had asked to do this was too shy. While the preparations were being made Mr. Bryant observed a shark's fin skimming through the calm ; writer. He says in his log that he did not point this out to the crew- they were alj ready depressed enough. During the funeral the. man at the forecastle head was blowing of the Crown Point reading some prayers, the foghorn in accordance with the Board of Trade regulations. The ship," says Mr. Bryant, "had been nearly six months'on the voyage. The winds had been light, and her bottom was covered with grass and barnacles, as it was two years since she had seeu the inside of a dry dock. The crew had no idea of sanitation and the stench of the ship below was tinbearable. On the Monday following the mate's death we had the first fair "wind, which served to land us at Queenstown on Tuesday morning, May 28, and the first thing t saw on making the land just off Kinsale was a Lowestoft fishing boat."