Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-09-03
A TALE OF THE SEA.
Story of the Suferings of a Ship
wrecked sailor.

Story of the Suferings of Ship
wrecked sailor.
The Ceylon Gazette of the 18th of
June gives the following narrative of
the only survivor of the steamer Spoke
Hall, which recently foundered:
s'When I came to the surface after
being washed off the bridge and
Ouartarmaster Usher were clinging
to the same life-buoy and | saw the
funnel of the Spoke going under
water. Boats and everything had
been smashed to- pieces and washed
away, and, indeed, if the boats had
been available, they could not have
lived in such water Catching q spar,
I abandoned the life-buoy 10 Usher.
It was dark at the time, and | could
not see him, and [ saw nothing more
of him or anyone else. At daylight j
managed to secure another spar. l
1ashed the two spars together with nay
belt, crosswise, so that / was able to
sit on the center. | could not have
held on much longer to the single
spar, because every now and then the
spar would fall above nae and my
head would go under water. When
day light set in the sea and the wind
had gone down. It came on 10 rain.
I had a sou'wester on, luckily, and [
held it up till I caught about cup,
fel of water. I believe that saved my
life, for | had swallowed & good deal
of salt water, and nay mouth was
parched.
81 saw nothing that day except
pieces of wreck floating about. On
the morning of the second day I saw
the smoke OF q steamer long distance
off. She passed on without seeing me.
/ saw one or two others during the
day, but they were still too far off.
About the middle Of the second day a
shark came rushing along at great
speed, 1t was not q very large
one-about nine or ten feet
long. I was sitting on the cross
piece with nay feet underneath. The
shark rushed over one piece of wood,
and fancy he got the other arm Of
the raft in his teeth, because he stop
ped suddenly. / had piece of stick
about three feet long which picked
up, thinking il might be useful for
hosting my cap on SIS signal. l
poked him with this stick, and be
cleared off at once, and I never saw
anything more of him. That night a
steamer passed quite close to me. I
could see all her lights, but the night
being dark, she did not observe me. [
hailed her, but she WAS too far off to
hear me. I dOze3 off once or twice,
but whenever I dozed [ fell into the
water. | didn't feel much mconven~
fence from the sun. My hat saved
me. On the morning of the third
day / saw a steamer and q sail. took
my coat off and holsted it on the stick,
and tried to attract her attention. She
altered her course land came straight
toward me, and I fancied she had
seen me; but presently she altered her
course and steered away from me. I
had almost given up hope then.
later in the same day another and
much larger shark visited me, but did
not come within the circle OF the raft.
He was tremendous fellow, twenty
feet long at least, and gave myself
up as lost when saw him. Nothing
more occurred until the evening. The
sun began to get low, and I could not
see anything all round the horizon,
and / made up my mind for another
night. I must have gone off into
longer doze than usual, for [ fell off
the raft on my face, and VIXEN [ got
up again the French steamer Peiho
seemed close on me, as if it had sprung
out of the water. ] had nothing to
signal with but my hat. ] held it up
as high as 7 could, and one OF the
soldiers on board saw me. A boat
was lowered and an officer and four
men came over to me and took me on
board, where they treated me very
kindly"