The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-01-06
DREADFUL sUFFERINGs AT SEA
Fearful voyage of One of the IEiber.
MAS Boats.

The Glasgow Herald publishes the
narrative OF Mr.. Davies, the second otti-
Ger of the steamer Hibernia, who had
marvellous escape i'll one of the ships
boats. When he left the Hibernia his
boat contained two barrels of biscuit,
three casks of water, and several cans
of preserved meat. Two hours after,
one of the barrels of biscuit had to be
thrown overheard, the boat was so
overloaded with passengers. The boat
was life boat, twenty-five feet long,
with six or seven feet beam, and it re-
Oulred two men constantly bailing to
Keep her atloat. One OF the women had
two children, of three and five years
old respectively, and another an infant
six months old. The tarpaulin was
spread over the forward part OF the boat
to keep the women comfortable. No
thing of particular note occurred till
the second night, when an old man,
who had shown symptoms OF derange
ment, jumped overheard, saying he was
going to bed. From that time their
troubles and sufferings increased ra-
pidly. We quote:
Next morning one ofthe passengers,
supposed to be Francis Rodgers, sud
denly threw himself overheard. y WO-
man, supposed to be his sister, pleaded
hard that some of us should throw her
into the sea after him; but we endeavOr-
degree. Rodgers was evidently out of
his senses. He had quarrelled with us
because we nailed the compass to the
thwarts. He wanted the knees Ofhis
trowsers darned, as che could not,' he
said Ego home with holes In them"
Up to this time provisions had been
given in moderate quantities, and each
person had a daily allowance of pint
of water. We had now to shorten the
allowance. We had to keep pulling
both on the fourth and fifth days, and
did not make much progress.
Sunday was calm all day. The chill
dren hitherto had been tOlerably lively.
The infant was fed on mashed biscuit,
its mother having no milk, and the
others got biscuit with small quaint
ty of preserved meat. The want fSuf-
ficient water now began to be felt; and
owing to the close packing of all in the
boat and the frequent wettings, cramps
were very general. We were forced to
keep everything in one position as
much as possible to avoid capsizing.-
Up to Monday no one had seriously
complained of the discomforts; and all
were in tolerable spirits. The seamen
did all in their power to inspire hope;
and the Quartermaster, Blair, spun
yarns TO keep their spirits up.
On. the Wednesday, the second engi-
neer sung the Tooth Psalm, and many
Joined with him. That day the wind
blew hard from the southwest, and we
had to bring the boat to by using the
sail and two of our oars as a floating
anchor, and in doing so lost both sail
and oars. It was useless to seek for
them, it being now dark, so we had to
make sail out OF a piece of tarpaulin,
and be content with one oar and u half
that we had with us in the boat. The
wind blowing fercely, the tarpaulin
was torn into rags, and we substituted
for it bed covers. These latter were also
destroyed. Samuel Brewster, an old
man, died on Wednesday, after going
rAving mad.
Many of our number now showed
signs OF madness probably from de-