Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-04-09
A MODERN CRUSOE.
mantle Yarn That should Probably be
Told to the Marines.

Told to the Marines.
A New York contribution to the col
unns OF the Boston Globe relates the
following interesting and romantic
story:
A few days ago a man about sixty
years of age, with the appearance of an
old farmer, and very taciturn, register
ed at the Sinclair House, under the
name of Ezra W. Forman, Nonora,
Pleiades group, Pacific Ocean. Con-
yerSation shows him to be a very intel
Iigent man. He tells wonderful tale.
He says in substance that in the year
l847 the ship Ocmulgee of .ereham
was homeward bound with full load.
tryWOrks overheard, and triahs and
kegs OF oil slowed in every top. After
leaving Lahaina, S. l., October z, with
800 barrels of sperm, 3, $50 barrels of
whale OIL, and Al, 900 pounds bone, she
was never heard from. Forman was
boat-steerer. He claims he is the sole
survivor, and states that the ship was
wrecked on Nomora, an island in the
Pleiades group, and gives the following
romantic story of the wreck:
The Ocmulgee went ashore on No
mora in December, 1847, and all hands
were drowned excepting myself, Mar
tin, the cook, and an Hawaiian sailor
named Waihee. All the oil casks were
stove, and the ship gradually hove over
the reef until finally the survivors
could walk around her at low water.
Through the Hawaiian | was en-
abled to talk to the chief on the island.
| ho hot = L l.,
Of the various articles, and assisted by
natives got everything out of the ship,
including the bone, and then broke up
the ship, saving planks, nails, anchors,
chains and whaling gear.
1--WE were given houses, lands and
wives, accepted our position and deter
mined to make the best of it, and except
that we were exiles from home and
friends, were content and happy. Taught
the natives many of the ruder arts, and
they prospered greatly. But the natives
feared to lose us, and when ship came
in sight hurried us away into the inter-
Tor until the foreign vessels had passed
on.
''Later my two companions died and
[ was left alone. Surrounded by my
children and grandchildren, was final
ly acknowledged to be their ruler, and
my word was their law. | told them [
must 90 to my friends, but had to
swear by their gods that would return.
Finally a sandal-wood trader touched
there, | embarked in her, was landed in
Sidney, and made my way here after
much trouble and time :"
Such is tOrman' 5 story. Now comes
Il. - l.. -
whalebone is in prime condition, and
from the time of its wreck to the pres
ent day native has always been on
guard over it, and that regularly once
a week its position has been shifted to
save it from rats and mold. Forman
says that his two companions left
number of children who are now bio
and healthy, and that he has twenty
nine sons and daughters and sixty-nine
grandchildren. Some Philadelphia
merchants have taken stock in For
mans story, have advanced him s., 900
worth of goods, chartered a steamer
and she will soon leave New York for
the Pleiades, to carry out this modern
Alexander Selkirk and bring back the
bone, estimated to be worth now from
$4,000, to S175, 900.
The story is a romantic one and the
appearance of Forman carries truth
with it; but Nantucket gentleman, to
whom the tale has been submitted, who
is conversant with whaling matters,
doubts it from first to last, and advises
the merchants, responsible ones, by the
way, to examine Forman and his story
very carefully before accepting its truth.
The gentleman who has advised on the
matter says there never was ship
Ocmulgee of Wareham in the whaling
business that was lost. The only
whaler of that name was owned in
Holmes Hole, and sailed repeatedly
from that port from 1914 until, in 1865,
she was burned by the Confederate
cruiser Alabama. There are also other
serious discrepancies in Forman' state
ment among which is the proportion of
whalebone to the proportion of oil Ia
ken, and although his yarn is ingeni
ously twisted, yet it is full of flaws and
apt to strand on examination, and the
inference is, unless he can reconstruct
his story with Il new name for the ship
that is acceptable, he is u crank or
cheat of the worst sort.
SpODges.