Living on Wood.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 109, 12 May 1904, Page 3

Living on Wood.

TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF A STARVING CREW. A ui'ribl.e fjtory of the sea is related by the survivors of the American barque Mary A Trpop. who arrived at Southampton at the end o( March. The vessel was in the North Atlantic, fifty days out from Pensacoia, .and bound for Rio de Janeiro with a cargo of timber, when a great gak was encountered. The boats wen swept away, jthe main ami mizzer masts snapped elpsje to the decks the bulwarks were rippe.(J oIT, ant eventually the hatches also went Then the distressed vessel becalm water-logged. For twenty-six days treiniitdou! seas swept the craft from end t< end. The carpenter was carried over board. When nineteen days had elapsed th. sufferings of the castaways liad be come accentuated, liy that time al the food, consisting of a barrel o flour, a dozen boxes of condense milk, and a tin of apricots, had beei eaten, and all the water drunk. Th 1 plight of a young lady, niece of th captain, was particularly sad, foi ' in addition to enduring the agonie of hunger, thirst, and exposure, sh , had lost all her warm clothing, an had to improvise apparel from sacks ' Lead was chewed to relieve thirst andi the wood of the boats gnawe t to appease their raving hunger. , So fierce was the gale that th ' men had to lash themselves to tfc

, deck with ropes to escape being washed overboard. The pumps wehre worked incessantly, in spite of tho L "terrible fatigue, to keep the ship from foundering. LIVING SKELETONS. At last, when the condition of the castaways, wasted nearly to skeletons and half mad with privations, appeared hopeless, the steamship | Cairnisla, of Newcastle, appeared in ' sight, and though a heavy sea rendered the work of rescue highly dangerous, Captain John Band pluckily saved all live®. The vessel was then some 200 miles north of Bermuda. According to the master of the Cairnisla, the decks of the Mary A. Troop were awash amidships, and the crew were huddled to- . gcther on the poop with scarcely strength to wave their arms. The crew of the latter vessel attempted to set the derelict 011 lire, but she was so water-logged that there was little likelihood of her burning. The survivors were landed at Havre, whence they arrived in England, and eventually reached their friends in London and Cardiff.