AWFUL ORDEAL OF PIRATE VICTIMS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3083, 14 May 1917, Page 6

AWFUL ORDEAL OF PIRATE VICTIMS

».. . TOLD BY AFRICAN LINER'S SURVIVORS INTENSE SUFFERING IN OPEN BOATS London, May 11. The Press Bureau reports that the Union Castle liner Alnwick Castle was topedoed without warning on March 19, 320 miles from the Scillies, the nearest land. Ono hundred and thirty-nine people were placed in tho boats, including a baby three months old.

Captain B. Chave, the master of the Alnwlok Castle, in reporting to the owners, gives an unvarnished tale of the horrors his boatload of castaways endured during four days of exposure to gales and bitter weather. He had taken the precaution to instal in all the boats a supply of milk, beef, biscuits, and blankets; but the suffering of those in them was intense. They were constantly soaked with ice-cold spray, and everybody was gradually weakened, till several died. Captain Chave describes how the whole of the second day was spent by the crew in fighting the sea. It was ■impossible to hoist a sail. They lashed two oars together and formed a sea-anchor. On the third day their thirst w;as intensified by the agonies of exhaustion, exposure, and sleeplessness. Pitiful appeals were made for water, but he was only able to issue an extra ration to' a few of the weaker ones. "A hailstorm commenced, and the hailstones were eagerly scraped from our clothing. I ordered a sail to be Bpread to catch water, but unfortunately the rainstorm passed. Several people drank salt water, in defiance of orders, and became light-headed. Next morning most of the men were helpless. Several were in a raving delirium, and one died. A Dreadful Night. "Once the boat was swamped in the dark. I thought all was over, and a moari of despair rose in the darkness. 1 shouted, 'Bale! Bale!' and finally, by superhuman efforts, the boat was saved. . "By morning several more had collapsed, and others had lost their reason, and climbed about the boat threatening to fight. The appeals for water were so angry that 1 gave out an extra allowance, which was served out amidst much cursing and snatching. Only one ration remained. Another man died, and others were dying. ','No one could now eat the biscuits or swallow anything solid. Everyone's throat was afire; their lips were furred, their limbs nunibed, their hands bloodless, _ and their feet swollen to twice their normal size. On the last day three died. "A French horse boat,'the Venom, picked up eighteen surrivors in the afternoon. They were so enfeebled that they could not walk, and all had to be hoisted on board. The survivors were landed at New York." Captain Chßve did not know whether the other' five boats were picked up. —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.-Reuter. [The Alnwick Castle (5900 tons) the day before she was sunk had rescued the crew of another torpedoed British ship. The passengers and crews of both vessels abandoned the Alnwick Castle in five boats, one of which landed on the Spanish coast with twentynine occupants (including one stewardess and ono child). Eight had died. The survivors were suffering from frost-. bite. Throe other boats were picked up during the week. One contained twentyseven* another twenty-nine, and the third twenty survivors and five corpses. The remaining boat was not then accounted for, and the new message clears up its fate.]