FROZEN TO DEATH.
a moat’s crew found stark and stiff IN SUNNY SOUTH CAROLINA.
Columbia, (S.C.). Jan IIntelligence has been received here of a horrible tragedy near Port "Royal, in which eight flat-boatmen were frozen to death. It seems that the skipper of the boat and his companions left St. Helena the night before last,when the} r took on board some cotton and other produce, bound for Port Royal. The night was a fearful one. The wind blew across the waters, the hail fell in torrents, and the thermometer was eight or ten degrees below zero. It was just such a night as would have made the hardiest old salt quake and tremble and seek shelter for himself and craft. The hail fell so thick that the most experienced pilot on the coast would have feared to venture forth into the tempest. Among other things the boatmen took a jug of whiskey on board at St. Helena, with which to have a jolly time, it is supposed, on the trip. Despite the warnings of their friends at the wharf at that place, that to go in such a frail boat on such a night meant death, the skiff cut loose from her moorings, and shot out into the channel amid the darkness of the night and the prevailing tempests. As they left, some of the illfated party struck up a familiar plantation melody, their voices ringing out clear enough to be heard above the din of the storm. That was the last seen or beard of any of the crew. Yesterday morning a steam launch belonging to a revenue cutter sighted the craft and put out to her. Upon examination it was found that all of the persons on board, eight men, were dead, lying on the bottom of the boat, stiff, covered with ice. One of them sat athwart the seat, rigid in death’s embrace. The others were scattered about the skiff, stark and cold. It is supposed that, having drank too freely of the contents of the jug, the men became beastly drunk, fell asleep, permitted the fire to go out, and never awoke, The empty whiskey jug was found convenienlly near the dead bodies. The men doubtless had a drunken carousal on board, sang and whiled the hours away, all unconscious, in their intoxicated state, of the danger that threatened from the cold.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SCANT18810217.2.16
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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2470, 17 February 1881, Page 3
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396FROZEN TO DEATH. South Canterbury Times, Issue 2470, 17 February 1881, Page 3
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