Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-25
WRECKED ON CHRISTMAS.
THE SAD STORY TOLD BY THE MATE
 OF A DISABLED BARK.
Without Food for Ten Days, and Only Three Quarts of Water to Drink-The Captain and Two Others Die of Starva- tion-Rescued at Last.

tion-Rescued at Last.
 NEW YORK, Jan. 25.-Among the passengers who arrived on the steamship San Marcos yesterday from Havana were seven of the crew of the bark D. Chapin, of Boston, which fouudered at sea on Christmas day. The sur vivors were adrift in boat about ten days without food or water. Capt. w. C. Hull, the cook and a seaman perished from hunger and pI'ivation, and the rest got so desperate that they were tempted to turn cannibals Ira w. Colbeth, the mate told last night the story of their distresses. The bark left Turks Island on Dec. 13 for Boston, with a cargo of salt In the Christmas day gale giant wave stove in her waist all of a sudden, and sent the men to the boat.
 ''We came away with neither provisions nor water, and no clothing except what we had on" said Colbeth. ''The boat was twenty two feet long, with centerboard, and had four pairs of oars We brought two gangway ladders and, keeping the boats head to the sea, We tied the ladders on to the painter to form drag. X heavy northwest wind tossed the boat about like a cork nearly upsetting it many times, and keeping us busy all night long haiing. After forty-eight hours the wind and sea moderated.
 ''On t!:c third night, about dusk, two m ssted &t2a 3le:. from the southward passed us to westward. 1t was so dark we could little nor fan see the masts. All hands shouted at tie top of their voices, but we weren't heard, and We grew Respondent The captain said .',, "aS going to pray for help, and he tod itl,. rest Of to keep lookout for more sail. ':'.lra long the cook, John Anderson t;:a Ja.s, praying too, and they kept it up Hcstiy Il night until the captain became de- llsou'. is cries for water were piteous. In spite O. ati o;ll' efforts he got to gulping down f,,t tI,,, T,
 ''|TFc a l lost al hope. The Jap died. It was the sixth day in the ops,~ boat and the last day of he year. When, the next day, Hans Peterson, a seaman, dropped away from hunger and exposure without saying a word, we began to look at each other. We could have a.li2cst eaten him. but we dropped him overboaTd, as we had done with the others.
 'TThen it began to rain. One of the seamen -sCooiz off his oicloth coat, and two men held it out flat to catch the drippings. We had an old five gallon tin oil can, which we had used as a balcr, and we got about three quarts of water in the half hours shower We held up the coat as long as we could see single drop go into the can. Then 1 took the can and dealt out equally to all. We had to drink it all up, because the can leaked, and the one holding it had to keep the hole plugged up.
 ''We had been drifting south, and, having a clear day and the heat of the sun, we took of our vet clothes for the first time and dried them, putting them on again at night, as the nights were raw and cold We stuck up oars in the mast hole, with coat stretched across them, and sailed all the ninth day We set tied down for another seepless night, and out of the darkness the first thing we saw on Jan 1 was a schooner several miles away What did we. do? We'll weak as we were, we moved pretty lively. Yes; we were sighted by the schooner. Mate Jasper, fellow townsn1an of mine, had spied from the fo'castle what he thought wreck in the distance, and he called Capt. J. ". Murphy from below. It was the Louis G. Babel, from Boston, bound for Sagua la Grande They eased off and sailed right alongside of us. We were SC weak cramped, and covered with salt water boils that we were entirely helpless. When the mate threw line into our boat tho mar in the bow caught it, but he was too weak to hold it. Then the captain passed blight of rope over, and hauled us up. We made directly for the water tanks, but we were allowed but glass apiece. s,kd food was dealt out in small bits at firss.