Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-09-10
MOTHER THRILLING MARIA.
TIVE OF THE SEA.

The Most Terrible Experience I'm the
Life OF a Mariner Who Has Cir
COMMUNICATED the Globe Twenty
Three Times Mad Survivors
Fighting Each other on n Raft
Grateful 60 savannah Pilots
The rescue Of. the. Csptain and Eve OF the
crew Of the bark Brunswick, which went
down in the gale forty-hve miles north OF
Tybee, by the pilot.boat Belle No. 5, Capt.
James 8. Bliss, and their arrival at savan-
nah on Tuesday night, the Both ult., has
been noted. We published recently an
interesting account from Captain Higgins,
the commander OF the vessel, of his expe-
rience. Among the rescued was James
Fisher, a native Of Philadelphia, who
reached his home on Monday night, and
tells the following story in the Philadel-
phia Times, which is of thrilling interest:
Mr.. Fisher is tall, slender man, of about
ffty-five years of age, grizzled and wrinkled
and bowed with the labor Of forty years
passed upon the seas. He has made the
circuit Of the globe twentY-three times, and
has been wherever a ship could go. Speak
ing of the wreck, he said, last night:
81 have faced death upon the ocean many
time, but never before under such terrible
circumstances. l have been in gales In all
parts of the world, but don't believe there
ever was a blow that could compare to that
cyclone. After leaving New Orleans we
sailed for Pascagoula, Mississippi, and took
on a cargo of pitch pine. We left there on
| our home voyage August 10, and had de-
lightful weather until the 18th, when we
| experienced heavy northeast gale. After
that the elements were kind to US until the
| 23d of the month, when we caught violent
northeast squall, which kept increasing in
force until It eliminated In the disastrous
cyclone Of the 9th.
eve were about seventy five miles of
Charleston, lust little to the north, per-
haps, and apparently in the very vortex OF
the cyclone. We soon discovered that we
were admitting water. Our waterways split
/ at half past i've in the morning and the
wind blowing so furiously that you could
not hear a word at distance of five feet.
Oar skipper, Captain Daniel Higgins, a
prince among men, and / consulted as to
what to do. We decided to throw the deck
load, comprising some thirty five thousand
| feet of timber, overheard. Well, over 1t
/ went. We went along better for awhile,
/ but only for awhile. The wind seem
| ed to grow stronger every second.
The vessel lay over on her leeside and the
water poured In. At IL o'clock the lee
yard arms were dipping and the vessel was In
| danger of cspsizing. We had to cut down
the masts to keep her from going over. She
righted, but the sea poured over her In tor
rents-a roaring, rushing, irresistible ava
lsnche. Our hold was rapidly filing. We
felt that the vessel must sink, and we threw
over everything that we could get rid Of, in
the hope Of saving her. In trying to break
the anchor away Theooore Shadduck, a
Greek sailor, was swept overheard. saw
him on the crest Of mighty wave behind
US, and thought he would be swept back.
He seemed to think so, too, for he called
out, 'All rightee, SIR But In q moment
after he threw up his arms and disappeared.
/ That was the beginning. Death had come.
zone boat had already been swept away;
the other and the forward house went now,
and we were left to the mercy of the waves.
/ Il was every man for himself, and go l told
| the men. They blubbered for awhile, of
course; deaths terrible thing when it comes
and laughs right in YOur.face. NO use, men,
said l; every mans got to go some time. Il
| any of you can pray, why pray. Now is the
time. But don't let us be women. Let US die
like men, Six of us lashed ourselves to the
stump Of the miZzenmast, and three to the
spanker-boom. There we covered, the sea
| beating over us, until at last the cabin
broke up, and the stump of the mizzen-
mast shot up into the air. We disen-
| gagged ourselves as rapidly as possible.
| Ambrose Mannelli, a Spanish sailor, who
| had climbed to the masthead, was drowned.
The broken mast foated of and the after
house and the skylight went along with it.
We crawled for our lives to q beam that
| served to fasten the skylight and dashed
ourselves to that. The hull broke up and
the cargo foated up around US. We were
| on nothing but raft composed of part OF
the deck. When we counted heads there
were but six of US. The rest had fioated on
and we're drowned, we scarcely know how.
| We didn't see or hear them go. 1t was
pitch dark and we could hear nothing but
the awful roar of the elements.
$50 we six lay there all might, fighting
the sea and wreck. The cargo ard broken
timber foated up around US, and " e had all
we could do to keep our frail raft from be-
ing broken to pieces by It and sunk. The
wind sent the scud flying with cutting
| force against our faces. Heavy logs forty
feet long were whipped up and twirled
around like shingles. got just little tap
Of one; 1t knocked all my front teeth down
my throat. In the morning we banded our
selves together so that the wind could
strike us-made a sail of ourselves,
so to speak-and we slowly worked
ourselves free from the debris. We had one
! enemy only to contend with then
the sea. The wind blew all that day, and
the waters poured down upon us. We saw
| a vessel some ten miles off, but 1t bore away
from us. We saw another vessel, but none
of them seemed to sight us. So we drifted
that day and next, hungry, thirsty and des-
pairing. Three of our men, who had been
drinking salt water, began to lose their
minds. One-the negro steward-wanted
to eat his hands. The two others, sailors,
imagined they were still 10 the forecastle Of
the vessel and engaged in a quarrel over
an imaginary theft of tobacco and wanted
TO gut each other with their knives.
We could scarcely control them,
but we managed it somehow. We had
drifted dswn near Savannah, after vainly
striving to signal passing vessels. We were
weak and helpless, and had almost given up
hope when pilot boat Belle, No. 5, Captain
James Bliss, sighted us and took us up. Per-
haps we wern't glad. We would have
cheered, but we were too weak. But l
want to thank him and some others now.
We were made as comfortable as possible in
Savannah. The Savannah Steamship Com
pany gave free passage to all of US who
wanted to come North, and the Boston own
ers of the Brunswick telegraphed our Cap
tain to take good care of the men. landed
barefoOted and bareheaded, and with moth