The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-03-08
An OCEAN HORIZON.

startled and HORNED the clV1llzeu WoIlu
has reached Boston, in a letter from Capt.
Kane, of the American schooner +. b.
Macdonald, dated Goree, on the west
coast of Africa, on Jan. "A
The British barb Marin, Capt. Gray
son, sailed from Darien, Ga, on the 21st
Of November last, with a cargo of timber
for Belfast, Ireland. She was 800 tons
burden, and was b,'ilt at Yarmouth, Nova
Scotia, Ii 1868, and was classed A23 at
Lloyd's. Her crew numbered fourteen,
including the Captain and officers.
Shortly after leaving port the carpen-
ter reported a serious leak. The weather
had been rough, and it is supposed that
some of the cargo shifted with the roll
ing of the ship and damaged her frame
and sheathing. Notwithstanding the
efforts OF the crew, the leak gained stead
lily on them, and the ship began to settle
lower and lower in the sea-
The cargo being timber, the ship did
not sink, but the weight Of her masts
caused her to fall over on broadside with
her spars in the water.
The unfortunate crew managed to
scramble over the bulwarks and gair the
side of the ship that was out of water,
and chung with desperate grip to the
channels and rigging IL the hope of be-
ing seen and rescued from their dreadful
position.
While THUS clinging on for their lives
the sea frequently made clean breach
over them, threatening them with death,
and exhausting their rapidly-failing
strength in their efforts to retain theft
hold OBJ the ships side.
The laboring of the wreck in the heavy
sea threw such an immense strain on the
masts, which were alternately buried in
the waves and lifted above the surface,
that they broke off one after another,
thus relieving the ship OF theif weight.
The result was that she righted again,
but lay buried in the sea, waterlogged
and unmanageabie. Everything nova
BILE on her decks had been swept away.
Her boats were destroyed, and the crew,
after another desperate effort, dragged
themselves to her decks, which We're pn-
der water
All this time the unfortunate crew had
been furnishing with hunger and thirst
The ships stores were beyond their
reach, being slowed below, and the con-
sequence was that all the horrors of
| II
While drifting thus helpless at the
mercy of the waves, they we're seen bt
the chip City Of Montreal, Capt. Mudg-
EFT, bound for Liverpool. One of the
unfortunate crew had already died of
exhaustion and hunger, but the surviv-
ing thirteen eagerly watched the APP
preaching sail in the hope of being res
cued.
But the Captain of the City of Mon
/ tfeal could not approach them near
enough to render them any assistance.
The tremendous gale that was prevailing
at the time, and the terrific seas that
were rolling, made it impossible to Teach
the doomed ship and her starving crew.
The City of Montreal was obliged to
abandon them to their fate, and filled
away for her destination The glaring
eyes that followed her receding form, and
the thirst-blistered tongues and lips that
endeavored to give utterance to despair
ing yet appealing cries for succor, made
even the horrors of the dreadful storm
appear less appalling than the mute des-
pair that was pictured ON every wasted
countenance:
The unfortunate Vessel was again
sighted ON the 18th of December by the
italian bark Madre Figli in latitude 80
deg. "a min, longitude Al deg. min
but no assistance could be rendered to
her crew on account of the heavy sea,
and they were again abandoned
After the departure of the italian bark
all hope of human succor seems to haze
abandoned the miserable men on the
wreck. The dreadful gnawing of hunger
rendered them utterly savage. One bt
one the poor wretches died of Sheet
starvation, While their surviving mess
mates crouched Watching for the last
breath to depart.
No sooner did one die than the famish-
ing survivors cut his throat and drank
the still-warm but almost putrid blood.
The wasting effects of hunger, thirst and
exposure reduced the frames of the mis-
cradle creatures to mere skeletons, aid
caused their blood to decompose almost
| IN their veins. Yet the living tried to
live by these dreadful draughts, and
watched with eager eyes for signs of a
comrades approaching death, in order to
enjoy another horrible meal.
Not content with draining Tie veins of
the dead, the hungry survivors cut up
the bodies and divided between them the
hearts and brains The other parts We're
found to be too offensive even for canni-
1 balls, and the odor from the bodies could
only be endured while the ready knife
ripped them open and cut from them the
hearts, or while the ships Ratchet broke
in the skull in order tn the brains
might be extracted.
Notwithstanding the horrors of their
situation and the awful lengths to which
they were forced to go to preserve life,
no violence was offered to any of the
living. The cannibals from necessity did
not murder their companions, but waited
with patience until they died
For thirty-two days after the date of
the first disaster this fearful tragedy was