FOUR DAYS ON A PLANK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3737, 29 December 1906, Page 3

FOUR DAYS ON A PLANK.

After drifting for four days on the raging Atlantic on a plank, with nothing to eat or drink, a young sailor, Thomas Hoeck, was picked up, became a raving maniac and tuen recovering his senses landed at New York on October 24th, from the Danish steamer Texas. .

Hoeck says he shipped on the schooner Oliver S. Barrett from New York for Port Royal S.C. On October 18th, on the return passage, the schooner ran into the edge of the cyclone and turned turtle.

‘ ‘ As I was flung into the water I managed to catch hold of a piece of timber.” Heock added: ‘‘On that I weathered the storm, but afterward I suffered agonies in the fearfully hot sun. I had been floating about two days when I saw a mulatto who had been one of Barret’s crew. He was on a plank. We managed to get our planks together. On the third day when we were almost dead from hunger and thirst, we sighted a warship, but were unable to attract her attention. As the man-o-war disappeared my companion shouted wildly, ‘ I had rather be drowned or eaten by sharks than starve,’ and leaped into the ocean. All that day and night I clung to my plank. The next day I sighted a steamship. Waving ray hands I attracted the attention of the lookout. After that I knew no more.”