A WONDERFUL ESCAPE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 3601, 15 April 1886, Page 4

A WONDERFUL ESCAPE.

♦ The Standard has published the narrative of tho extraordinary experience of the woman who, after a strango series of mishap«, found hereelf alone m a fishing sm»ck, which drifted from one of the Orkney Islands to the coast of Norway. Tho main portions of her story are as follow :— She embarked m the Columbine, intending to visit a niece •who lives at Lerwick. They had not got far when, at noon, the vessel struck on a sunken rook off the coast of Shetland. Being very ill, she was below at the time, but she felt tho shock, and heard the captain an'l tho two sailors running about on deck, and heard the captain give orders for tho boat to be lowered. Although very seasick, she at once got up and tried to come on deck, but the ladder fell, and she was unable to replace it. She heard the boat row off, and was terribly alarmed, for tho wind was blowing very hard, and the sea was high. She attempted many times to replace the ladder so as to get on deck, but could not do so, though she' could look out of the open hatchway of the oabin. At night the vessel drove along under doublereefed mainsail. The only food which she had brought with her was a bottle of milk and two biscuits. There wore provisions m the forecastle, but she was unable to reach them. The first night -was a terrible one; the vessel rolled heavily, she was m darkness, and seas often washed down the hatchway, keeping her drenched to the skin. Every moment she expected the boat would go to the bottom. When morning broke no land •was m sight, nor was there a Bail to be seen During the whole of the seven days and nights she never slept, but at intervals stood up and looked above the hatchway to see if aid was m sight. She made the biscuits last as long as possible, but for the last four days she was altogether without food. She suffered more from the wet and from thirst than from hunger, and quenched her thirst so far as she could by licking the drops which con densed on the windows. Gradually she becams very weak, and she could scarcely stand up 'to look out ; she therefore lashed herself close to the hatchway, fearing that she might roll away and he unable to get back so as to look out. The Columbino grounded near Lepso, but it was some hours before the smack was noticed by any of the inhabitants. The weather was Btormy and the sea high •when the Columbine went ashore near Lepso, and when she was at first perceived it was supposed that her crew had abandoned her, or had been washed overboard. But suddenly a violent gust blew away tho sail and rigging, and then a woman's head was seen to appear above the hatchway. There was no boat near which could be launched, but a young man volunteered to swim out to her. He succeeded m getting on board, and found the woman almost insensiblo and tied up against the ladder hooks. He passed a rope ashore, and fastening her to this sho was got to land. She was at onco carried to a farmhouse, where she was most kindly treated and nursed.