Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1878-03-13
4 STRANGE SEA STORY.
Tough Experiences of the Crew of the
Otto George---The Tale Of the Res
cued Men.
New York Times.

The German bark Amaranth. COM
manded by Capt. Brauer, arrived off
Sandy Hook yesterday, having on board
seven German sailors who We're picked
up at sea in an open boat on the night
of the 18th of February in latitude A
degrees and ~ minutes north and lon
gitude SO degrees and 10 minutes west.
These men say they left the sinking
vessel, Otto George, on the night of the
9Th of February in mid-ocean, leaving
on board the vessel the captain, mate,
two seamen, and boy. The names Of
the rescued seamen, who are all North
| Germans, except one, are Franz Prau-
schke, Franz Blascke, Johann Ernst,
August Rhode, Franz Boss, Erdmann
Schwatzky, and John Davidson. Da-
wilson is Norwegian, and is the only
one Of the men who has any knowledge
Of English, and he uses the language in
no very fluent manner. A Times re-
porter went on board the Amaranth,
which was lying in the bay last evening,
midway between Tompkinsville, Staten
island, and the Long island shore. The
rescued seamen appeared to be in ex-
cellent health and were comfortably
clothed, They said that the Otto George
was a Danizig bark, commanded bv
Capt. Lemke, which left London on the
Sd of January, and the Downs on the
9Th of January, bound for New York,
in ballast. The vessel encountered
very bad weather from the beginning of
the voyage. There were heavy gales
from the west and northwest, and on
the 9TH Of February there wss an unu-
sually fierce gale. The vessel lurched
and her timbers creaked. At 6 o'clock
in the evening heavy sea struck the
vessel, and soon afterward the sailors
heard crash-the bark had sprung a
leak, which grew larger every minute
The pumps were manned and kept
working constantly. The next day,
Wednesday, the 9th of February, the
captain determined to abandon the
bark. By his orders the long-boat was
hung on the davis, at 20 o'clock at
night, and the captain and all the crew
got into it except the mate and car
penter. The mate was a son Of the
captain, and the sailors say that he had
gone down into the cabin to write a
message which he intended to seal in
bottle, to be cast into the sea. The bark
was creaking violently, its hold was full
of water, and the ballast rolled from
one side to the other The captain
loudly called his son, but he received
no answer. Then he sprang to the deck
of the ship, intending to so below and
summon the young man. At that mo-
ment the rope holding the stern of the
boat gave way, and one end of the boat
fell A heavy sea washed the boats
vain away, and three oars were lost at
the same time Two of the seamen
and the cabin boy clambered upon the
deck of the bark, and then one of the
men in the bark cut the rope holding
up it's bow, and the boat was carried
away from the sinking vessel. The
storm continued and the men expected
that the boat would be swamped every
minute. They say that they saw the
Otto George for the last time at 11:20
o'clock that night, when she was still
floating. They say, however, that the
night was very dark. The meagre sup
ply of provisions in the boat soon gave
out, and the men suffered terribly.
Capt. Brauer says that when he picked
them up their feet were badly swollen.
They had with them the papers of the
bark Otto George, which are now IN the
possession of Capt. Bauer. The bark
was of five hundred tons burden, and
was owned by G. Lenk, of Dantzig.