A FISHERMAN'S TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 52, 17 April 1885, Page 5

A FISHERMAN'S TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

A Gloucester (Mass.") correspondent tells this plain tale of suffering on the Grand Banks, ia the St. Paul Pionee?- Press :— The other day I heard the story of one fisherman's fsarful experience, who just missed a grave in the fog-haunted waters ojt the fishing banks, from bis own lips. His name is Howard filacWburn. His was one of the most startling and thrilling adventures of ; its kind. He and Thomas Welch left the schooner Grace L. Fears, on Burgeo Bank, 30 miles off the Newfoundland coast, to pass a day, in fishing for halibut. A snow-storm came up and, losing the schooner, they passed the night and the next day in the open dory. Said Blackburn :— " We threw our trawls overboard and pulled to the eastward,- where we thought the land lay, though howfar we had no idea. As I afterward learned our course was almost parallel with the coast and we might have rowed on forever almost without reaching ib. The gale increased in strength and the sea ran so high that we were in imminent danger ot being swamped. We made a ' drag,' out of a trawl keg and lay head to the wind, spending our time in bailing out the boat, which was constantly being filled by the breaking waves. While riggiag the ' drag ' I had the great misfortune to lose my mittens overboard. There was nothing to prevent my hands from freezing and soon my fingers began to stiffen up. We had nothing to eat or drink, were half frozen and almost exhausted. Finding that I was fast losing control of my freezing fingers I seized the bars and, squeezing my fingers around the hand la?, I allowed them to freeze in that shape, so that I might be able to row later on. for I knew that was my only chance for life. We lived in hope that we might be picked up by some passing vessel, but we saw none, and all that day and the following night we lay &t the drag. Work as hard as we could we could hardly prevent the dory from filling and sinking. The ice which formed continually and rapidly on the boat's sides and gunwales had to be broken off in order to lighten her. We took turns and the exercise kept us from freezing to death. " Welch became discouraged at last and lay down in the bow to die. I tried to keep him up, but he became blind with the cold and would or could do nothing. I took off my socks and put them on my frozen hands, but they afforded little, protection. . Welch soou went mad and begau thrusting his feet over the sides of the boat into the water. He kept begging for a drink of water, and about midnight I found him a frozen corpse. I tried to put on Welch's mittens, but my bands > were " so stiff and swollen that I could not. Seizing the bailer, which was made out of a trawl keg, I worked until morning, and with the first gleam of light my courage increased. The wind had moderated slightly, so I pulled up the drag and pufled in search of' laud. The Wisdom of having allowed my hands to freeze in a curved position was now made apparent. There was no feeling, but the friction of the handles wore away the skin and flesh like powder. "As the light increased, to my infinite joy I saw land indistinctly in ihe distance and at once started for it. All day long I tugged at the oars, hungry/- thirsty and worn out, and when night came on again I bad not reached it. The wind had gone down, fortunately, as I have to the dory and got what rest I could that night. Early in the morning I made another attempt to reach the land in sight, but I was so weak that I did not land until sunset. It was near the mouth of a river. On landing I discovered a house, but it was deserted. I spent ; the dreiry night in walking the floor and eating some soow I had gathered — the only thing I had had since I had left the vessel four days and four nights before. I have often wondered how I kept alive since. In the morning I found that the dory had pounded on the rocks and driven out the plug in the bottom, so that she filled with the water and sank. To lighten her I lifted out Welch's body, but being weak I.dropped it and it sank in 12 feet of water. It was afterward recovered and buried. .«' I fixed up the dory and started up the river, ja search of help. Seeing two vessels in the offing, I made for them instead, but after a hard pull the wind came up and they sailed out of sight. Now throughly disheartened, I returned to the house and spent the night. To Bhorfcen my story I may say that the next day — the fifth— -I went up Little River, discovered three houses, found friends and was well taken care of,"