The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1878-11-20
STORY OF A WRECKED BARK.

STORY OF A WRECKED BARK.
Drowned-Threo PerIshiug Sailors Res.
cued from the Wreck.
The following account of a disaster
which occurred to a whaling vessel from
New Bedford, Mass, rivals the hctlons
of the most graphic writer's and appeals
far more strongly to ones sympath!es
than could any imaginary tale OF ship
wreck and suffering. The ill.fated YES
sell. il will be seen, was caught in a
hurricane the day she left port, and IN
a few hours capsized by the force OF the
wind and waves and left adrift on the
raging sea. A majority of the crew were
swept overheard at once, and Of the re-
naming little band cut of by the neon
! ing waters only three we're saved, after
suffering far worse than death. A de-
tailed account of the 6nuing OF the SINK
ing bark, the rescue of the three per.
ishing sailors and their W story OF
their sufferings is given below.
The pilotboat Isaac Webb, No. 3,
left Sandy Hook, near New York, at
two ?. N. on a recent Monday, and at
four o'clock the next morning, when
forty miles south of Block island,
passed close by a floating wreck, barely
showing above the surface of the water:
| No sign of life was visible, but the yawl
was got out and pulled close to the bow
| of the vessel. BY the light of the moor
it could be seen that it was a bark lying
completely on her beam ends, with but
a small portion o. <her port side above
the water. A man sprang from the
yawl on to the wreck and trod upon
what he supposed to be a pile of wreck
stuff and canvas, but to his astonlsh'
ment and fright the mass rose up with a
cry of alarm. In the pale moonlight It
appeared so much like an apparition
that the crew of the yawl were for q
moment scared completely out of their
wits.
Recovering themselves they looked
again and saw not a ghost, but "
human beings wrapped in canvas reach
ing out their hands for help. The poor
| fellows, when they realized that de-
liverance was at hand, pointed to the
side of the vessel beneath their feet and
said. in broken English, "One man in.
side. The pilotmen put their ears to
the spot indicated and heard the voice
of a human being calling in heartrend-
ing tones for help. The rescuers had
only the slippery side of the vessel,
washed by the sea, TO stand upon, and
there were four inches Of plank. eight
or ten inches of oak timber and four in
ches of ceiling to be cut through with q
dull axe before they could reach the i'm
prisoned man.
But the sailors were not disheartened
by the difficulties of the situation, and,
having taken the two men to the pilot
boat, they returned to the wreck and
commenced cutting through the oak and
iron ~fastenings of the vessels side. They
could still hear the despairing cry of the
almost exhausted man. Relieving each
other at intervals, they continued to cut
and saw, and after two hours incessant
toll succeeded in making a hole through
which they could speak to the poor
fellow within, who cried out that the
water was rising and almost strangllng
him. Radoubling their efforts, they
finally made q hole large enough to ad-
NIT of the passage Of a man, AMI drew
from the darkness below the swollen
and almost ~lifeless body of Henrique
Gancavis. When asked if any others of
the crew still survived, he answered,
"No ; they are ali dead"
Taking the sufferer into the yawl the
party returned to the pilotboat and did
what they could to aid the rescued sail
ors, from one of whom, Joseph Refs,
they obtained the following story of
their shipwreck:
"Our names are Joseph G.. Refs,
Manuel Avis and Henrique Gancavis,
all of the Cape de Verde islands. Last
Saturday we shipped On the bark Sarah,
of New Bedford, for q whaling voyage OF
two years. The crew numbered twenty
five men all told. We left New Bedford
Saturday morning at seven o'clock, the
weather at the time looking very stormy,
wind northeast, blowing q stiff breeze,
which at four P. NJ. increased to a gale.
We commenced to take in sail and reef.
At half-past five we hove to on the port
tack, the wind blowing a hurricane and
a frightful sea running. About two
hours later q tremendous sea struck the
bark and capsized her on her beams ends.
There we're seven of us below in tho
forecastle at the time. The sea rushed
in and filled the ~forecastle in a moment,
cutting off III escape TO the deck. We
struggled for life and managed to keep
our heads above water clinging to feat
ing chests.
"We called to each other and found
that there were six OF us alive-fve men
and one boy. One man, a brother Of
Avis, died o little while after. The boy
died the next morning. The four of us
yet alive chung to the sail tier, with the
water up to our chins. BY prying open
the lid OF a floating chest we foun'i a
small bottle of sweet wine and about
eight apples. We ate the apples and
each one of US took a drink of the wine.
The cock was dying. he begged for
more wine. We gave him another
swallow, and a little while after he died.
We pushed his body down under the
water, as we wanted the space. There
was only about eighteen inches to two
iocU VI spdCC DcG~SSu thO "otC1 dAo ZIG
side, and the floating chests and stuff
jammed our heads aud bruised our
bodies dreadfully. We had fresh air
enough through a broken deck light,
which occasionally rose above tue water.
Believing we must die if we remained
in this horrible place, we decided to try
and find the scuttle and reach the deck.
The scuttle was about ten feet under
water from where we were clinging.
Emanuel tried first, and on the second
attempt succeeded in reaching the open
air. This was on Sunday afternoon. I
tried twice, and was almost drowned be-
fore I could get back again. I had q
hard struggle to get my head through
the floating boxes. I didn't try it again
that day but the next day. Monday, I
made another attempt, ana, after a des-
perate struggle, got out and found Man.
uel clinging to the upper side of the
vessel.
"There was a dead man Joseph
Barro) dashed to the rigging. cut him
| adrift, as he made me feel bad. Manuel
said he saw a steamer about eight miles
off the day before. We pulled some of
the pieces of canvas up to where we
were clinging and wrapped ourselves in
it. We called to Henrique, who was
still in the forecastle, to come out, but
the COR fellow couldn't swim and