Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-12-08
ON A RAFT IN A GALE.

UN A kAFT IN A GALE
Thrilling Experience In . Gale ON Lake
Michigan-rour men of q Schooner's
Crew Lost and Four Others Left to Cling
Tor Thirty-one Hours to Gradually
Sinking Raft-One Becomes a Maniac and
Dies-Rescue Of the Others, with the
water Knee-Deep ON the Raft.
MILWAUKEE, November Is.
Inc propeller Wisconsin. on her arrival here
from Grand Haven this morning, brought the
news of the loss of the schooner Collingwood
ana her Captain and four of her crew in Thurs
days storm. When about two hours out from
Grand Haven the men on board the Wisconsin
heard cries for help coming up from the water.
The Wisconsins life-boat was manned and put
out in the direction from which the sounds
came. The boats crew soon came upon a raft
on which were found three half-frozen men.
Tney were taken on board the Wisconsin, and
proved to be the survivors of the crew of eight
men belonging to the schooner Collingwood.
Their names are: r. D. Sheldon, Frank Mo-
Fee. and Nicholas johnson. The following is
Johnson's account of the loss of tho schooner
and the remaining five of the crew:
The Collingwood was loaded with cedar
poles, and was going from st. Helena to Chi
cago. She was miserable old thing, and was
almost unseawOrthy. l understand the boat
was worth about $4,000, and the cargo about
SS,OOu st. Helena is near the mouth of the
straits. During the gale Thursday afternoon
the vessel became water-logged, and we
worked the pump for all it was worth. About
rour o clock in the afternoon the pump got
choked, and things looked pretty blue, tell
you. The gale was blowing from the north
west, and about five o'clock the sea made the
vessel roll over. There we lay, right On he
brvadside, till the topmust went out,
when with great groan she Strengthened
up on her beams-ends and kept that
way for about an hour. Then, all of a sudden,
the deck burst up, caused by the pressure of
the water against the cargo, and she rolled
over and went down head first. The whole
crew, eight of us, were all hanging for dear
life to the taffrail, thinking that it would be
the last thing that would give way. After she
went down the sea washed over us. The Cap
tain and three other men who were lost were
seen floating with posts under their arms.
There was piece of deck about sir feet
square and three of us got on that. Sheldon
got on another raft, the one we three were on
when we were picked up. Four of US
finally got on to that raft. We suf-
fered terribly, the air being biting cold,
and fierce gale was blowing. To
make matters worse the steward became
raving maniac during Thursday night, and
it was all that two of us could do to keep the
poor fellow on the raft All through the
night and during Friday the man fought us,
and several times he succeeded in getting into
the water, but we dragged him out. About
four o'clock yesterday afternoon his strength
gave out, and after a last maniacal struggle he
died. We held on to his body for awhile, but
had to let it wash overheard Finally, as we
had no way of fastening it to the raft, we took
some papers and things out of his pockets,
and among them was receipt for a consider
n1Al
with Chicago store-keeper named Jacobs.
EARLY yesterday morning all of us became
almost totally blind from the terrible expo
sure. That of course, only tended to aggra-
vate our sufferings. How we managed to live
so long under the circumstances the Lord only
knows. But we couldn't have lasted much
long n. Last night we were sleepy that il
was with difficulty we could keep our eyes
open. The raft gradually began lowering as
the posts under it absorbed the water, and
from dark on until the time we were found
we stood in water the whole time nearly knee
deep. If there had been any place to sit down
we would have gone to sleep and frozen TO
death. We continued walking from one end
to the other, and some one would occasionally
go to sleep while walking and step overheard.
The others would pull the unfortunate back
onto the raft. McFee walked off the raft three
times last night, and 1 succeeded after great
trouble in getting him back each time. For
thirty-one hours we didn't have a thing to eat
managed to dig little bit of oakum out of
the RAFT and the three of us chewed this for
twelve hours. McFee would have died in a
couple of hours if we hadn't been picked I'D.
He was beginning to act crazy, and was so
numb that it was with difficulty that we kept
him on his feet. If the Wisconsin hadn't come
along just when she did it would have been
UOOd-hV with N for dp,f hox
much longer, and we realized also that the
raft was gradually becoming waterlogged and
sinking
But little Is known concerning the lost men.
Captain Willets was sixty years of age, and a
resident Of Kingston. Canada The name of
the steward who persisted on the raft could not
De ascertained: The other persons lost con-
sisted of two Norwegian sailors and boy. All
are supposed to have been Canadians.
The clerk of the Wisconsin said that it was a
little peculiar, but by the merest accident the
boat had been driven q quarter of a point out
of the way i'm coming across and this unusual
course caused them to find the survivors of
the crew.
Captain MGregor, of the Wisconsin. says:
-Four of the crew, including the Captain went
down with the vessel, and four got on the raft.
One of the number died yesterday afternoon |
on the raft, and the other three chung to the |
frail thing until we picked them ND last night |
They were on the raft about thirty-one hours,
and suffered untold agonies from the rough |
sea and extremely cold weather. They were
covered that it was with difficulty we got them |
from the raft to the boat. They gave their |
names as Nicholas johnson, X. ID. Sheldon, |
mate OF the craft, and Frank McFee. We |
did all we could for the poor fellows. and |
provided them with means to reach their |
homes"
The survivors of the wreck were found on |
the boat. and they proved sorry looking lot |
Their hands, feet and limbs were badly frosted |
and swollen, and 1t was with difficulty they |
could walk. Mr.. Sheldon, the mate, said the |
sunerings or himself and companions during |
the long time they were drifting around at the |
mercy of the cold waves were terrible i'm the |
extreme, and that words were Inadequate to |
describe what they had gone through.
IIliteracy i'm fhe Unified Sfafae