DISTRESSED MARINERS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1682, 25 May 1904, Page 62

DISTRESSED MARINERS

(From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, April 8. An experience, happily unusual in these, days, befell the P. and 0. liner Arcadia on its way from Gibraltar to Plymouth. On the Friday preceding the liner’s arrival at the latter port, last Sunday evening, the Arcadia sighted a Spanish barque, the Annibal. The officer of the watch on the bridge noticed that the Annibal was flying with the greatest possible prominence a series of flags of the international code, which spelt out a message of terrible significance. It was brief, but to the point, and ran: “Short of provisions—starving.” Captain Lyon, the commander of the Arcadia, at once altered the steamer’s course, and bore down upon the barque, which was now the centre of attraction for the Arcadia’s passengers, who, however, could not fathom the pathetic story told by the cluster of flags flying so jauntily in the breeze. The ringing of the engine-room telegraph, preliminary to the Arcadia being hove-to, apprised the passengers of the fact that something unusual was amiss. Quickly it became known that the Spanish crew were starving, and then all eyes were directed upon the preparations to alleviate the * distress. Supplies of fresh provisions—meat, bread, tea and coffee—were transferred to the barque in one of the lifeboats. llow joyously the English sailors were welcomed on the Annibal may well be imagined. The Spaniards had exhausted their stores days before, all that remained on board being a small quantity of water. They reported having been at sea forty days, and were bound from Caracas, Venezuela, to Spain.