Connecticut western news., 1888-02-01
TEN DAYS ADRIFT.
No Food and Only Rain Water for
 the Chapin's Crew.

Among the passengers who arrived on tho steamship San Marcos from Havana were seven which foundered at seq on Christmas Day. The survivors were adrift in boat about ten days without food or water. Capt. W. c. Hull, the cook and . seaman perished from hunger and privation, and the rest got so desperate that they were tempted to turn canpibals. Ira W. Coabeth, the mate, tells the story of their distresscs. The bark left Turks Island on Dec. IS for Boston, with cargo of salt In tho Christmas Day gale giant wave stove in her waist all of sudden and sent the men to the boat.
 eve came away with neither provisions nor water, and no clothing except what we had on" said Colbeth. 'sThe boat was twenty-five feet long, with oentreboard, 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. A heavy northwest wind tossed the boat about like cork, nearly upsetting 1t many times, and keeping us busy all night long bal ing After forty-eight hours the wind and sea moderated.
 s'On the third night, about dusk, . two masted steamer from the southward passed us more than see the ,uasts. All hands shouted at the top of their voices, but we weren't heard, and we grew Respondent. The Captain said he was going to pray for help, and he told tho rest of us to keep lookout for moro sails. Before long the cook, John Anderson, the Jap, was praying too and they kept it up nearly all | night until the Captain became delirious. His | cries for water were piteous. In spite Of all | our efforts he got to gulping down salt water. In the morning he died in agony. We all knelt around him, and prayed God to have mercy on his foul, and we all wept like chll- dren Then we dropped him into the sea.
 .We had lost all hope. The Jap died. It was the sixth day in the open boat and the n last Peterson, . seaman, dropped away from hun ger and exposure without saying word, we iegan to look at each other We could have almost eaten him, but we dropped him over board.
 'Then it began to rain. One of the seamen took off his oil-cloth coat, and two men held it out fiat to catch the drippings. We had an old
 ive-gallon tin oil can, which we had used as . in the half hours shower. We held up the coat as long as we could sec single drop go into the can. Then I 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 [ clear day and the heat of the sun, we took on our wet 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 settled down for another sleepless night, and out ot the darkness the first thing we saw on Jan.
 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 townsman oi
 mine, had spied from the fo'castle what he . thought was . wreck in the distance, and , he called Capt. J. W. Murphy from be low. It was the Louis G. Babel, iron
 Boston, bound for SAgua Ia Grande. The.
 eased on and sailed right alongside of us. w
 were so weak, crAmped, and covered with sal
 water boils that we were entirely helpless
 When the mate threw line into our boat tn, man in the bow caught it, but he was too veal
 to hold it. Then the captain passed blight o
 rope over and hauled us up in the loop of i without any assistance from his crew. He sai, : wew were as light as feathers. We made direct ly for the water tanks, but we were allowe, : but . glass apiece, and food was dealt out i \ small bits at first. You can't imagine ho' happy we were. There never was 8 kinde 1. friend than Capt. Murphy. He took us t Sagua, where we arrived Jan. Il. Capt. Hu , had wife and daughter at South Dennis Mass"