A SAILOR'S STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 259, 31 March 1914, Page 6

A SAILOR'S STORY.

LOSS OP THE DALGOMAR. ABAXDOXED IX MID-OCEAN. Mr. W. Carston, of Little River, has received from his son, Mr. A. Carston, the young sailor whose experiences as a member of the crew of the British ship Dalgomar were briefly referred to recently, a long letter giving an account of the loss of the Dalgomar in I lie South Pacific. The narrative is a thrilling story of peril, hardship and tragedy on the sea, and of a gallant rescue by a crew of Frenchmen, who stood by the helpless vessel through two days of storm until they were' at last able to take off the survivors. The Dalgomar was a large steel sailing ship, bound from Valparaiso to Taltal, on the West Coast of South America,- in ballast, and it was her ballast shifting in a galo that brought her to disaster. Mr. Carpton writes from Dover, England, as follows:

BALLAST SHIFTS IN A STORM. "We discharged our cargo of coal from Newcastle, and took in 1200 tons of ballast—that is, the rough shingle placed in the lower hold to prevent the vessel from capsizing—and signed on sixteen hands and went to sea on September 25,. for TaltaJ. I told you Tocopilla, but the orders were changed. We had fine weather up till October 8, then it came on to blow from the eastward. On -the ninth I was watch below when a squall struck the ship at 10.15 a.m., carrying away the fore lower-topsail and shifting the ballast to leeward a little. As we were under lower topsails at the time, this left only the foresail on the fore, and lower topsails on the main and mizzen., All hands were immediately called to trim ballast, and the starboard watch—that was the one I was in—went to. dinner at seven bells. At noon I went to the wheel and was there till -2 o'clock. The helm was hard down all the time, and the ship was rolling heavily on account of the sail being blown away. At three o'clock 1 was relieved, and went down the Xo. 3 hatch to help in finishing off the ballast. It was nearly level again by this time.

1 SHIP ON HER BEAM ENDS. "I was down about twenty minutes when she gave a terrific roll to leeward, and the ballast ran from under our feet, carrying, us with it. At the same time water was pouring down the hatch. We had great difficulty in getting on deck on account of the list. When we got on deck she was listed to an angle of about forty degrees. The captain then gave orders to prepare to wear ship. "We squared the main and cross-jack-yards, but the ship would not pay off, so we hoisted the injer and outer jibs with the sheets to windward, but in the meantime the fore-sheet had carried away, and there were no sails at all on the fore, and the ship had been slowly going over more and more. The .rudder was useless by this time, as it was out of the water. - It was useless to try to do anything with the ship now. so the skipper gave orders to get the lifeboats out if possible.

A BOAT SMASHED. "I walked from forward to aft on the ship's side, so you can tell how far we were over. L The lee boat was launched first with about five men in her, but was broken up instantly, the men being thrown into the water. They all managed to get back except one. While this was going on I went down on a line to the sail locker, and passed up the life-belts and took one for myself. As I was coming out of the locker, I saw the captain come out of" the saloon and hand a box to the cook, who was on a life-line—that is a line hanging from the weather side to enable a person to pull himself up the almost perpendicular deck. . THE CAPTAIN KILLED.

"The captain who was an old man, then caught the line but could not hold on. He let go and dropped into the scuppers striking his head, and killing himself. The cook went to his assistance but lie, too, was caught by (lie sea. The last I saw of,him was when lie threw up his arms and sank. It was now a case of each man for himself. I scrambled up to the remaining boat, and in as she was going down. We had no sooner reached the water than down came the davit with a crash, tearing the side clean out. ; I was caught under it, and down 1 went.

. STRUGGLING FOE LIFE.. '"I though I was done for. but finally I got clear and grasped a big plank. My word, it was cold! I could see the others struggling for their' lives. It was terrible to hear the cries of the men drowning, the crash of wreckage and the whistling of the wind. First one head/would bob up and disappear and then another. There was a wooden punt about twenty yards away. I struck out for this, but then remembered that there were no provisions, and turned towards the main rigging. ON THE SHIP AGAIN'. "I got out of the water more dead than alive with fatigue and cold, and walked along the mast to the weather half round of the poop. Nearly all of the hands were there, except four who were drowned.

"The carpenter, who, when .lie saw that the ship was a case, had got an axe and started to cut away the masts. He did not attempt to go in the bouts but stuck to his work, for if the masts had not been cut away none of us would be here to-day. After we got back was the worst time of all. as we could do nothing but sit down and look death in the face, and I hope we did it like men. There was not a man amongst us who did not say hn prayers.

CUTTIXC. AWAY THE MASTS. "At last the carpenter got the mizzon cut away. It helped her a little, but the decks were still nearly perpendicular. When the main and fore were cut away she righted to about an angle of 20 degrees. The wind was from the south-east, and I had on only a shirt and no trousers, and 1 felt' the cold keenly. "About five o'clock we thought it safe to go below, so I lowered myself into the captain's cabin. I got his revolver and cartridges, and. blowing open the slop-chest door, broke up all the bottles of rum and spirits I could find, for they would have been a great temptation. I put on some dry clothes, and the second mate came down and we started sending up biscuits, liy seven o'clock the main and mizzen masts were over, but the stump of the fore-lower-mast held on. and every time the ship rolled the keel would go up and come [ down on the keelson with a bang. If it had missed the keelson once it would have knocked a hole in the bottom. "We were about 1200 miles from th» nearest land, and out of the hade of siips, so we were in a bad way. There

was not much sleep at night ior any of us. We did not expect to sight any vessels, but the next morning the man on the look-out saw a light. FRENCH BARQUE TO THE RESCUE. "We immediately pent up rockots, and saw an answering one, and wlu-n daylight came we saw a four-masted barque flying the French flag, _ came as near as possible, but it was impossible to lower a boat, as the sea was still running heavy. However, she promised to stand by till the weather moderated. I went down into the hold and everything was in confusion, the ballast heing all on the lee-side. it was a wonder the ship did not capsize. It was Monday, two days after, that the wind moderated sufficiently for tho Loire to send a boat. On Sunday the burial service was read for thosewho were drowned. We were living on raw bacon and biscuits. On Monday there was still a heavy sea. They pulled to windward, and then we sent them two lines, one to pull us through the water to the boat and the other to hold the boat. LEAVIXO THE WRECK.

'Thirteen men went in the first boat, and while it was away the carpenter and I got everything ready to fire tho ship, but when the Frenchman returned they told us to leave her. I was the third to last to leave tho ship, the second and the carpenter being last. We could take nothing but the clothes we stood up in, for we had to go about two hundred yards through the water to the boat. The Dalgomar looked an awful sight from the other ship's deck. THE VOYAGE TO CAPETOWN. "We then stood away for Capetown. The passage was not too pleasant, for we had only one shift of clothes, and there was plenty of ice and snow about. For three months we fed on biscuits and beans, and very little of that. Our Christmas dinner consisted of two ounces of tinned beef, a spoonful of beans and a biscuit. For' breakfast we had a biscuit soaked in weak coffee, without milk or sugar, and for tea a biscuit soaked in water and beans. It was a very miserable passage—three months and eleven days out of sight of land. "It was a curious thing that help appeared thirteen hours after the accident, and we were taken off on , the , thirteenth of the month, thirteen men going in each boat!"