A Grim Story of the Sea.

Manawatu Herald, 2 March 1893, Page 2

A Grim Story of the Sea.

A SAILOB DEVOURED BY HIS MATES. 1 I For sixteen days, says a Hamburg r despatch of January 81sfc, the three . sailors rescued from the Norwegian l jphip Tiekla subsisted on human 1 flesh. The three strangled a fourth, ; their companion, and lived on raw strips of meat cut from his corpse.

From the limo nf their rescue until ihe :31st January the three unfortunates hnvi' l». j (-n insane front their sufferings in the riggings ol the founder*! ship. Two of i-hem recovered sufficiently on the ftlst to tell the story of the Thfikla's voyage. The ship wns in henvy weather from December 2nd. when she left Philadelphia. Hor decli.s woe Hooded almost constantly, the deck -houses and rails weiv swept away, -.?»(! the steering apparatus broken. When it was found there was no hope of bringing the ship into pori;, the master, mate, and eight seamen got away in a boat. Tbfi other boats were smashed by the waves before they could be lowered, and nine men were obliged to remain in the rigging. They were unable to get food from below, and five ot them made insane by exposure and starvation, jumped overboard. The other four remained aboard from December 22 until January 7, the day nf their rescue. On the thirteenth clay lots were drawn to determine which one should be killed and eaten 'Ihe lot fell twice in succession to a Dutch sailor. He was strangled and devoured raw by the others. The only drinking water the seamen got was the dew they licked from the rope?.