Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-09-03
A TALE OF THE SEA.
story of the SufferIngs of ~ Ship
wrecked Sailor.

story of the SufrerIngs of ~ ship
wrecked sailor.
The Ceylon Gazette of the 18th of
June gives the following narrative OF
tbe only survivor of the steamer Spoke
Hall. which recently f%oundeced:
''When | came to the surface after
being washed off tine bridge I and
Ouartermaster 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 a spar,
I abandoned the l~ife-buoY TO Usher.
1t was dark at the time, and l could
not see him, and ] saw nothing more
of him or anyone else. AT daylight |
manged to secure another spar. |
dashed the two spars together with my
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 me and my
head would 90 under water. When
daylight set in the sea and the wind
had gone down. 1t came on TO rain.
[ had a sou'wester on, luckily, and |
held it up till l caught about a cup
ful of water. / believe that saved my
life, for | had swallowed q good deal
of salt water, and nay mouth vas
parched.
81 saw nothing that day except
pieces of wreck floating about. On
the morning of the second day / saw
the smoke oil a steamer a long distance
off. She passed on without seeing me.
l 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 a great
speed. 1t was not a very large
one-about nine or ten feet
long. | was sitting on the cross
piece with my feet underneath. The
shark rushed over one piece Of wood,
and l fancy he got the other arm OF
the raft in his teeth, because he stop
ped suddenly. ] had a piece Of stick
about three feet long which l picked
up, thinking it might be useful for
hosting nay cap on rs a signal. l
poked him with this stick, and he
cleared off al once, and | never saw
anything more Of him. That night a
steamer passed quite close to me. l
could see all her lights, but the night
being dark, she did not observe me. l
hailed her, but she was too far off to
hear me. | dozsd off once or twice,
but whenever / dozed | fell into the
water. l didn't feel much inconven~
fence from the sun. My hat saved
me. On the morning of the third
day / saw a steamer and a sail. | took
my coat off and hoisted it on the stick,
and tried to attract her attention. She
altered her course and came straight
toward me, and / fancied she had
seen me; but presently she altered her
course and steered away from me. /
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 a 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 / could not
see anything all round the horizon,
and / made up my mind for another
night. | must have gone off into a
longer doze than usual, for | fell off
the raft on my face, and when 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 / could, and one OF the
soldiers on board saw me. A boat
was lowered aAd an officer and four
men came over to me and took me on
board, where they treated me very
kindly"