PERILS OF THE SEA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LVIII, Issue 8942, 17 December 1907, Page 7

PERILS OF THE SEA.

FOETY DAYS ON A DESERT ISLAND.

story of the sea was told 4|H£tie passengers and crew of the Wmte Star liner Oceanic, which readied Plymouth the other day from New York. Shortly before the liver left New York there were landed there six members of the crew of the American barque Prussia, who had been cast away on a lonely islaud at the extreme south of South America for weeks, and reduced by hunger to the necessity of chewing sealskins to keep alive.

The seamen owe their lives to the ingenuity of the ship's carpenter— Carl Stark, a Norseman—who constructed a little sloop, and with two others undertook iv it a venturesome voyage for succour.

The Prussia was in the vicinity of Gape Horn when a gale sprang up, and drove her far out of her course.

Captaiu Andrew Johnson was trying

to sight the light maintained by the meteorological statiou on New Year's Islaud, when they lost their bearings, and struck ou the rocks of Statou Islaud, a bleak and desolate mountain which rises out of the Atlautie. sajrniiles east of Capo Horn, and is separated from the. maiulaud by tho Strait of Lβ Maire.

A narrow friuse of saudy beach, about 300 ft loutf. skirts the island, and behind this rise mountain cliffs.

On this iuliospitable strip of sand all save two of tho crew were cast when their vessel struck. So quickly did the vessel go to pieces under the tremeudous pbuudiug of the waves that there was no time to launch a bout.

The men wore thrown iuto a boiling surf, aud washed up on the sand by seas, which buffeted them with such force that most of them were unconscious. Had it not been for the quick work of two of their number, more fortunate iv getting ashore, they might have been swept back iuto the sea. These men groped through the darkness, and drugged their companions as far back ou the beach as they could. CAPTAIN DIES OF EXPOSURE. When morning broke, the survivors found themselves under the shelter of a cliff. Two of their number were missing. They were Sabata, the Jamuesa cook, aud Heury Hammond, afljkViuericnu seaman, v> hn were never the first confusion of tho vessel striking. The same morningJune 30th —the captain died from the cold and exposure.

The cold was iuteuse, and the first thing the men did was to gather wreckage aud build a fire. This done, they buried Captaiu Johusou as far back from the live of breaking surf as possible. The beach was strewu wifch wreckage, aud they gathered from the ship's stores that came ashore a barrel of pork, some biscuits, and a quantity of canued goods. The question was then how they were to get away? A hut. hastily erected, furnished but little shelter from the cold, aud the men knew that thfiir larder would last but a short time. They knew that Xew Year's Islaud was only a short distance away, aud Carl Stark declared that lie could build a small boat which would make the trip. All the men began to gather wreckage and assist the carpenter. Two men were detailed to climb up the cliff to start a signal fire aud raise distress signals. The men who started were Stanislaus Porthiua, a Frenchman, audHaseth, a Norwegian.

FROZEN TO DEATH. jffce two were gone three days, and tnlnHaseth returned alone. He came crawling back on his bauds and kuees. His companion had been frozen to death, aud Haseth's feet were so badly frozeu that he could uot walk. He is now in a hospital in Argentina, aud may lose both feet.

The supply of food becoming exhausted, the"unfortunate men killed seals for a week, and ate them and limpets. Seal meat was only available for a week, because after that, as one expressed it, the seals got wise, aud they could no longer kill them. Towards the end they were forced to subsist chiefly ou the skins of the seals previously killed. All this time the work "on the boat was progressing slowly, and thirty days after they struck the islaud Stark declared the boat ready to be launched. John Hunter, the mate, Hermann Hayne, and Stark led the forlorn hope. Their departure was a great event for the remainder, who gathered on the beach and cheered Hunter as he piloted the boat out to sea. The distance to New Year's Island was about 100 miles by boat, as they skirt the shore running in and oOTHiloug the coast live. The boat's crew had taken a slender part of the food supplies, but they did not suffer mn.cn from hunger, for they made the run to the meteorological station under favourable conditions.

A week after the arrival at New Year's Island, a whaleboat, uuder the command of Lieutenant Delgardo, and manned by five volunteers, rounded the point of rocks on Staten Island, and was spied by the castaways. Their troubles, however, were not at an end. The rescue boat had met adverse winds, aud took five days to make the trip. The store of provisions the rescuers were bringing for the men of the Prussia was more than half consumed when they reached Staten Island. A gale sprung up shortly after they arrived, and it was six clays later before the whale boat could be launched, and the start made for New Year's Islaud. In the interval all the food brought by the rescue party was consumed, and on the way back to the station all had to eat limpets.