Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1857-10-22
The CENTRAL AMERICA.
Three More Men Rescued after being Mi
Days Adrift on the Ocean.

They came looking almost like skeletons
gaunt, sick, exhausted. They wer,
found drifting in one of the steamer
life boats, some 4SO miles Northeast o
the spot where the Central America wen
down, and nine days after that sad al
fair the brig Mary picked them up. OIL
her voyage from Cardennis (Cuba) tt
Cork, Ireland. The Mary carried then
eastward seven days. when she met tn,
Bremen Bark Laura, coming from Bre
men toward New York, and transferred
them to her. The Laura arrived yes
terday morning with the three men
Their names are
j. TIcE, I'd Engn'r. of the Centra
/ America. Alex Dawson, Fireman.
6 W. Dawson. (Colored,) } Passenger
The story of these poor fellows il
briefly this:
MIR. TICE staid by the steamer till the
moment she sank, when; with planl
that he had before provided; he plunged
into the sea. He was drawn down in the
whirl, but, in coming to the surface
again, brought his plank with him Ia
this alone he clung for three days;seeing
no sail, nor any of his late shipmates
On the fourth morning he drifted past
an empty boat, for which, deserting his
plank, he swan, land, after tedious pull
got into it. On the 5th day he drifted
close past the steamers hurricane deck
sim ply an inch board platform, COW
cred with oiled canvas. Mr.. Grant one
of the steamers fremen, who was on
this hurricane deck, jumped off, swan
to 1ice's boat, and the two rowed her
up (for happily the oars had not been
lost out) to the hurricane deck land took
off Dawson, the only tenant it then had.
The three, then, drifted four nights and
three days longer, north and eastward,
up to the very eastern edge of the Gulf
Stream, and out of the usual track of all
vessels. Tice had nothing to eat nor to
drink from the hour the steamer sank
until on the fifth day! when he struck a
dog-fSh with the blade of his car and
killed it. This wretched prOvender they
eat ravenously of. raw, of course, and
then till the ninth day they had no more
to eat. On the eighth night there was a
heavy rain. Of the water that fell they
drank freely, and would have killed
themselves with it, Grant said, but that
they had been able to save only little
of it, and the supply soon failed, Whe-
ther it is true that the two who were
saved on the hurricane deck had moth
ing to eat is not known. They say they
had not; if they had 1t must have been
that they fed on human flesh. But this
Grant stoutly denies, while Dawson
stubbornly refused to say, Yes OF No
when his friend, as delicately as bluff
old soldier could, asked him the ques-
on.
The two who were saved on the hur-
ricane deck suffered less during the first
four days than the Engineer. Grant
eass that when he found himself over
board, still clinging to the piece OF
wreck that he held by when it parted
from the steamer. there were nine others
on it, six of them the steamers passen-
gers. They saw no sail, nor could tell
that any survived beside themselves. On
the second day Dawson, the colored
man, drifted to them on a plank. He
attempted to get on the hurricane deck,
but they demonstrated, as the weight of
those already on it sank it so low that
the sea washed clean over it every
wave. He would not part company with
them. however, but clang fast to side
waiting until as one after another of
them dying, fell off, it lifted to the
surface, and Grant was glad to have his
company. As we have already said,
Mr.. lice picked them up Oh the fifth
day.
Though these three men are in the
city, and we have conversed with them
ALL it is little that can be got out of
either of them, or that they have told
anybody. So long as they were on
board the brig Mary experiencing the
kind attentions of Capt, Shearer, they
were SO utterly prostrated as to be- un-
able to communicate much of their hor-
rible nine days experience, even if in
their wretched monotony they were not
ike one long dream. On board the
Laura, Grant had recuperated enough
to tell his story, if he had .elt disposed,
but he spoke only English, viii of the
100 odd German passengers and crew
of the Laura, only the. mate and one
passenger spoke English. On their ar
rival here their best friends and theiI
physicians unite in advising them to
open their mouths only to eat. The
statements that we annex are the re.
suit of their occasional conversation
since they reached port. Tice is ex
ceedingl ly weak and debilitated. lie
tainted several times yesterday
The bark Laura came up from Quar-.
antine and anchored off Castle Garden
at 81 yesterday. The three rescued
landed. and passed short time at Cas-
tie Garden, receiving the greeting o
such friends as had heard of their arri
val. They were almost sufiocated 10y
the crowd which pressed around them
and 1t was difficult to answer one hal
the questions put to them. The CO Ioret
man, Dawson, evidently impatient o
the distinguished attention shown him
soon found an opening through thu
crowd, and limped away.
Mr.. Tice and Mr.. Grant were driver
in carriage to No. 1T West-street
where another larger crowd was assem-
bled in expectation of their ARRIVAL
They went up stairs to the officers 0
the company who met them Mr.Tice ant
Mr.. Grant are much reduced in flesh
t their feet are tender and swollen. AM
their lips, face and hands sore wher
the skin has been peeled off by the ac
, tion of the salt water washing over then
for so many days, and their exposure t.
a scorching sun. They have the ap
pearance of men just recovering from
protracted and severe illness, their lip
are hlack-their cheeks sunken. Boil
walk with difficulty. Both say tha
) they could not have continued alive ma
nv hours longer. When fallen in witt