Terrible Tale of the Sea.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1604, 9 January 1886, Page 4

Terrible Tale of the Sea.

A teirible tale of the sea has just been told at Liverpool, sara the London Daily Ckron cle of October 22, by one of the suryi\ors of the crew of the British er Lady Frances, wrecked on her passage from Shields to Alexandria. Save that cannibalism was avoided, there is' not a conceivable element of horror wanting :in the narrative given. We hear of a boat capsizjJ between 1 an* I 2 i^ the morning, and of- eight of L ie men that were m fior clinging to the keel for a time, and then, by desperac efforts, succeeded m righting her. o^atel m this frail craft, without food or water, for, us usual,' she had no locker provided with such means of prolonged \iU, they strained their eyes vainly m the hopes of detecting the approach .of a sail. Weakened by starvation and maddened by burning thirst, they one by one began tp lose their reason. "Wati^ water everywhere, and not a drop to drink," they" might have uiqaued, m fc.ie words of the ancient mariner. The. captain of the lost ship at length, m his delirium, imagined that he had reached the well-wished-for shore, and stepped cheerfully into the sea to return no more. He was followed at intervals by othe.'S of the doomed men who thus terminated their Sufferings. ..But the steward became a furious madman, with a desirj to attack his miserable companions, lie wished' to get possession of a knife, but baffled m that design, he tried to di^ the .caulking frbm 'the boat,.. in order that .she .might sink, and he took other means, but m vain, to bring about the death of those stiir clinging to life.. At last' he, too, cast himself into the sea, leavinir but tWo survivors of all thosd m the captain's boat — the men who . are just b.een brought to Liverpool by the steamer Mggdala. The occupants of the other " Boats that left the Lady prances fared much better, lor only one of them was drowned.