Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-08-28


The Oeylon Observer OF the 18th OF June
gives the following narrative OF the only sur.
vivor Of the steamer Spoke Hall, which re-
Gently foundered 'When came 10 the sur
face after being washed OF the bridge, / and
Quartermaster Usher were clinging tO the
same life. buoy, and 1 saw the funnel OF the
Spoke Hall just going under water. Boats
and overything had been smashed TO pieces
and washed away, and, indeed, II the boats
had been available, they could not have hved
in such water. Catching spar, l abandoned
the life-buoy to Usher. Il was dark ct the
time, and / could not see him, and l saw
nothing more of him or any one else. At
daylight managed to secure another spar.
/ lashed the two spars together with my belt
crosswise, so that | was able 10 sit on the
CENTRE | could not have held on much long
or TO the single spar, because every nov and
then the spar would fall above me, and my
head would go under water. When daylight
set in the sea and the wind had gone down,
and II began TO rain. had q sou'wester on,
aud held it up till caught about cupful
of water. believe that saved my life, for
had swallowed good deal Of salt water, and
my mouth was parched. / saw nothing that
day except pieces of wreck floating about
On the morning of the second day l saw the
smoke OF steamer a long distance of. She
passed on without seeing me. 1 saw one or
two others during the day, but they we're
still too far of. About the middle OF the sec-
ond day shark came rushing along at .
great speed. II was not a very large Ona-
about nine feet long. l was sitting on the
cross piece, with my 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 stopped suddenly. had
piece of stick about three feet long, which
picked up, thinking it might be useful for
hosting my cap on as q signal. poked him
with this stick, and he cleared of at onoe,
and never saw anything more of him. That
night a steamer passed quite close TO me.
could see all her lights, but, the night being
dark, she did not observe me, / hailed her,
but she was too far of to hear me. dozed
of once or twice, but whenever 1 dozed
fell into the water. / didn't feel much in
convenience from the sun my hat saved
me. Od the morning of the third day / saw
steamer and a sail took my coat of and
hoisted il on the stick, and tried 10 attract
her attention. She altered her course and
came straight toward me, and l fancied she
had seen me but presently she altered her
course and steered away from me- had al
most 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 a tremendous fellow, 20 feet
long at least, and gave myself up for lost
when saw him. Nothing more occurred
until the evening. The sun began TO get low,
and could not see anything all around the
horizon, and made up my mind for another
night. must have gone of into longer
doze than usual for l fell of the raft on my
face, and when got up again the French
steamer Pelho seemed close on me, as II it
had sprung out OF the water. had nothing
to signal with but my hat. held it up As
high ~ l could, and one of the soldiers on
board saw me- A boat was lowered, and an
officer and four men came over 10 me and
took me on board, where they treated me
very kindly"