Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-08-14
HORRORS OF CAPE SABINE.


Greedy survivors subsisted on the flesh of
their dead comrades, which story has
created a sensation, and accounts of which
| appeared in our dispatches yesterday:
Written documents now in the posses
sion Of the Navy Department at Wash
/ ington add to the record Of miserable hu-
man suffering already published
in connection with the finding Of the
/ Greedy Relief Expedition the most shock
| ing stories of inhumanity and cannibal-
/ ism. All the facts have been in the pos
/ session of Secretary Chandler for nearly
| three weeks. but so closely have they been
/ guarded. and so strictly have the naval
/ officers and sailors maintained the silence
! imposed upon them, that not even an
/ inkling of the true and horrible condition
/ OF affairs has yet reached the public ear.
/ For the sake of humanity and the ADerl-
/ can people the army authorities are en-
/ deayoring to keep the matter hushed, but
| in the official investigation, which is
| almost sure to come. the facts in all will
| undoubtedly come out. Every effort Will
/ presumably be taken to prevent it, but
/ the truth must be known in time. 1t viii
/ be remembered that in Commander
| Schley's first dispatch to Secretary Chand-
| Ter announcing the finding Of the Greedy
| party he said:
1 would urgently suggest that the bodies
/ now on board be placed in metallic cases here
/ for safer and better transportation in sea-
/ way. This appears to me imperative.
| As Mr.. Chandler was in West Point
| the dispatch was answered By Real-Ad-
miral Nichols, Acting Secretary of the
/ Navy. He said:
| Use your own discretion about care and
! transportation of bodies.
/ of ri
| graphed:
Prepare them according to your judgment
| and bring them home.
1t took some days TO prepare the iron
| caskets, which were all bolted and riY-
| eted. 1t was remarked at the time by eX-
| perienced officers that this would hardly
/ have been necessary for the preservation
/ Of the frozen bodies. They could safely
| have been brought on, without any delay,
| in wooden collins. The design was OBJ
/ yiOuslv to prevent all possibility of friends
of the dead sailors being given an oppor-
| tunity to look at their remains for the
purpose Of Identification or otherwise.
/ Even the sailors on the relief ships.
with the exception of few men who as
| sisted in removing the bodies, We're not
allowed to see them. The lips of the Off
| GERS were sealed. When Commander
| Schley met Secretary Chandler and Gen.
I L =
/ rival OF the ships from st. John, he was
very much agitated. and called the gen.
| tlemen into the cabin of the vessel. In
doubtedly he then communicated TO them
| the facts which have since become an
| open secret.
| The sufferings and privatiOns Of the men
| in their canvas hut during the long, bit
| ter winter of 1884 have not half been told.
| 1t has been published that after the game
IN
principally on sealskins, lchens and
| shrimps. AS a matter OF fact, they were
| kept alive on human flesh. When the
rescuing party discovered the half-starYed
| survivors their first duty was to look to
! the two men who were insensiDle from
| cold and priyatiOn, even to the point Of
| death. One of them, German, was wild
| in his delirium.
con he shrieked, as the sailors took
| hold Of him to lift him tenderly. ''dont let
them shoot me as they did poor Henry.
Must / be killed and eaten as Henry was?
| Don't let them do it. Don't. Don't!"
The sailors were Mortified, but at once
reported the mans words to Commander
Schley. After brief investigation he felt
| satisfied that the poor fellow was speak
| ing the truth. and that some of the men
who persisted had been stripped Of their
| flesh to keep their surviving comrades
| alive. Mr.. Schley proposed to make
| thorough work Of it. When the horrible
| reality was brought out before an
| investigating committee he did not
| propose to have it rest solely
| on his oral testimony. He instructed
! two or three gentlemen, among whom was
| DR.. Ames, the Surgeon OF the Bear, to
| make a careful examination, and put their
| conclusions in writing. This was done,
| and the reports are now in the hands Of
| the Navy Department. Lieut.. Greedy was
| decidedly adverse tn having the bodies Of
/ the buried dead disturbed. He thought 1t
| wise. as they had been buried so long, to
/ let them remain in their arctic graves.
| Commander schley did not agree with him.
| The bodies were dug from their graves in
| the little hill lust back of the permanent
| camp established in October, 1888. Most
| Of the blankets contained nothing but
| heaps of white bones, many Of them
| picked clean. The remains could be
| identified only By the marks on the blan-
| kets. By inquiries Commander Schley
| discovered that many OF the seventeen
| men who are said to have persisted from
/ starvation had been eaten by their fam
| ishing comrades. 1t was the one last
resort. Provided supplies had not arrived,
death stared the hungry and
/ crazed men in the face, but there was
| hope if life would hold out for even few
| weeks. 1t is reported that the only men
| who escaped the knife were three or four
who died of scuryy. The amputated limbs
| of men who afterWard persisted were
| eagerly dey0ured as food.
| Charles B. Henry's death was particu-
| larly tragic. He was a young German,
| without any relatives in this country, and
| Joined Company z, Fifth Cavalry, in Gin
/ cinnati. His friends tried to dissuade
| him from going with the expedition, but
| his spirit of adventure was aroused by
| tales of arctic exploits, and he determined
! to 20. Driven to despair by his frightful
| hunger Henry saw an opportunity to steal
| a little more than his share Of rations, and
| he made the attempt. He was found out
and shot for his crime. In the published
official report the death Of this man is set
| down as having occurred on June 8.
| When the body was found his hands and
face. though shrunken, were intact and
recognizable, but nearly everywhere else
the skin had been stripped from him and
the flesh picked from the bones. Even his
heart and lungs were eaten by his COM
rades. One rib was found shattered by
bullet ball. and to another small fragments
OF lead were attached. A bullet hole was
found in the skin. The body was in this
condition when it was inferred in Cypress
Hills Cemetery last Saturday. The letter
his friend, Mr.. Robert 5. Oberfelder, Of
Sidney, Neb., is daily looking for will
DrUDdDIN never come 10 llgnbs
Whether the four bodies which were
swept out to sea and never recovered
would have added further evidence to this
story Of horrible cannibalism cannot be
learned now, though the papers in the
possession Of the Navy Department give
all the particulars as told by the survi-
vors. At first they were 10th to talk of the
horrible experience they had passed
through, but after promises of absolute
secrecy their evidence was all taken in
writing. Lieut.. Greedy sad that he
wished the men had been rescued by
the army instead of the navy. OF course,
it was impossible to keep the actual state
Of affairs from the crew, but absolute ST.
lence was imposed upon them. The Off
GERS were not allowed to talk of what had
occurred in their presence. One man who
openly spoke in the mess<-0m about the
inhumanity of using fra IA ) IS of human
flesh as bait for shrimA las severely
reprimanded. Not a woNEof the facts
was given to anybody until Commander
SchleY made his report to Secretary
Chandler.
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