TORTURES OF TANTALUS.

Te Aroha News, Volume I, Issue 33, 19 January 1884, Page 3

TORTURES OF TANTALUS.

A Starving Crow Drifting for Many Days Within Sight of Land. Baltimore, Dec. 2.— One of the most terrible stories on record of suffering at sea is that tQld by a survivor of the ill«fated

barque Freeman Clarke, 6$ Boston, which was burned, off the coast of Africa, last summer. Thomas Hynes, one- of the crew, reached this port yesterday from Capetown, and his narrative of the suffering experienced in the open boats for days, within a few miles of land, with food and water not five miles away, from which they were barred by an impassable surf, while one by one they succumbed from exhaustion, is not equalled anywhere in fiction. This is the ' first news that has reached this country of the disaster beyond the bare announcement of the loss of the vessel. Hynes says that one day last May, while he was walking in the streets of Calcutta, having lately been discharged from his own vessel, he was invited by two strange men to take a drink. The next day he awoke in the forecastle of the Freeman Clarke, Captain Williams, with a cargo of jute, bound for Boston. The Clarke was thirty years old, and very leaky. Rough weather followed, and the crew had to keep at the pumps all the time. About July 12th, after rounding the Cape, heavy weather ' came on, and the captain lost his reckoning. While in this dilemna, at two o'clock on the afternoon of July 15th a fire was discovered by the captain in the lazarette. All hands were put to work at the pumps. They fought the fire until 9 p.m., when the flames seized upon the inflammable cargo and became beyond control. When the fire was discovered they were forty miles off what was supposed to be Port Elizabeth light, but it proved to be Cape St. Francis light, the most dangerous and exposed part of the coast. At 9 o'clock the crew took to the boats, being then 10 miles off shore. In the captain's boat were Mr Boyle, second mate, the steward, a Chinaman, three sailors, all the ship's papers and instruments, and plenty of provisions. In the other boat were first mate Waymouth and the remainder of the crew. By some oversight no provisions but a bag of ship biscuits were taken along in this boat, and no water. The boat being leaky, the biscuits became wet and unfit to eat. It was death to attempt to pass the breakers, so the two boats headed for Port Elizabeth. It came on heavy weather and they parted, this being the last ever seen of the captain's boat and its crew. Having nothing to eat, the men became exhausted. The weather was fearfully cold, and it rained all the time. On the 18th of July the cook, a Boston man, died and his body was at once thrown overboard. Another victim, a Norwegian, shortly followed. Several more days passed,and it was impossible for them to work longer. Those able bailed out. Just as desperation seized them Port Elizabeth light was sighted. A signal of an old jacket on an oar was recognised. Three fishing boats put off and picked them up. The steam tug James Searles towed them in. The castaways were kindly treated by the American Consul, who took care of them until they were able to travel They say that when they last saw the captain's boat it was headed for shore. A searching party went overland to look for them, but found nothing but a part of the wrecked ship's boat which had been splintered by the breakers, and a few fragments only were left to tell the sad story of the unsuccessful effort to reach the boat. She must have been capsized and all on board lost, as nothing has been heard of them since. The survivors were afterwards sent to Cape Town, where passage was secured for them by different vessels. Hynes was put on board the Roma, which had already on board the crew of the wrecked steamer Dauntless, and brought to Baltimore. Hynes lives in Liverpool, and has a sister in New York, whom he is anxious to see before taking passage for home. He tells a strange story of the origin of the fire. He says it was whispered among the crew that the captain started it, intending to destroy the ship, and thus get the insurance. The lire broke out where he himself was, allowed to get terrible headway before it was reported or any effort made to check it. Death, however, now covers all traces of the crime, if crime it was.