Dreadful Experience at Sea.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XIX, Issue 6046, 11 September 1894, Page 1

Dreadful Experience at Sea.

A terrible talc is told by Captain Romberg, of the Swedish barque Norden, which lias arrived at Marseilles from this port. In the account received yesterday by mail the captain states that after leaving Sydney last August ho arrived at Jaluit, in the Caroline Group, to complete his loading. He complains that no fresh provisions could be obtained at these islands, and his sea stock consisted of but two pigs. He sailed from the Carolino Group on the 24th of October, and owing to contrary winds and calms the voyage was unusually prolonged. In this beginning (nearly six months out) the ship's stock of provisions ran short, and having subsisted fcrso long a period on salt food, the captain, the cook, and tho carpenter were seized with scurvy. They became so bad with it that their teeth were failing out, and their limbs swelled up so much that they were compelled to keep in their cabins. Tho captain once in a while managed to crawl on deck. Very little hope of reaching land was entertained by tho ship's company, but a favoring breezo springing up they came in sight of Gibraltar. There the wind died away, and they lay becalmed, nearly every man on board then smitten by scurvy. Signals were made, but they were not noticed, and at night the Norden drifted past Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. Incredible almost as it appears, two days elapsed before assistance came, and it was then from a British steamer that, seeing the signals flying, bore down upon them and supplied them with fresh food and medicine. On arrival at Marseilles all hands were suffering so terribly from scurvy that they were taken to tho hospital, the captain being almost beyond hope of recovery. It may, perhaps, bo remembered that this vessel, on her outward voyage, was tho cause of some anxiety. She came hero from Hamburg with general cargo, and was over 150 days on the passage. Iler luck on the homeward trip appears, however, to have been much worse.