The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1890-08-21
TWO DAYS OF TORTURE
A STOWAWAY SUFFERS FOR THIRTY
HOURS IN A CRANK PIT.

HOURS IN A CRANK PIT.
He Lives TO Tell a Horrible Story of .
Frightful Experience-Lying Below O
Shaft That Made Twenty-four Revolu
tions a Minute.
This poor fellow was an Englishmar
who had become penniless, discouraged
and homesick. He made up his mind il
his desperation to stow himself away
and take his chances. He stole into an
ocean steamship-one of the regular
liners which ply between New York and
Liverpool-and hunted for a hiding
place. He knew nothing about ma,
chinery, and in his ignorance he picked
out the most horrible place in the whole
ship. 1t looked quite attractive whe1
the poor fellow picked it out, and he
thought that he was lucky to find it.
1t was the hole-the crank pit, | think
it is called-in the floor of the engine
room into which the great crank sinks
twenty-four times minute when the
vessel is at full speed. While the vessel
was still this crank was elevated above
the hole, and the unfortunate man, ig-
norant of marine engines, didn't know
that in few minutes it would descend
with terrible effect upon him.
He crept in; the ship started. The
crank in it's first descent struck his left
arm with terrible force and crushed it.
He could not move, for in less than
three seconds down it came again,
crushing more bones and tearing more
flesh. Just imagine such fate if you
can. The wretched man drew himself
into the smallest compass he could and
expected death. Every time the crank
came down it escaped his head by about
an inch and half. He didn't know the
exact distance, of course, but he knew it
came very near, and he was in mortal
dread that it would come nearer.
sUPEEsTITIoUs sEAMEN.
Most of this that have been telling
came from the lips of the stowaway. For
he lived to tell it, and is still alive. He
must have tainted away after enduring
this terrible agony for while, and prob.
ably he did not again regain conscious.
aess until the ship was twenty-eight
hours beyond Sandy Hook. 1t was then
the middle of the night, and one of the
assistant engineers, who had charge of
the engines on that watch, heard heart
rending groans proceed from the ma
chinery. He was Mortified, and the men
employed about the engines, who are
superstitious, were not only appalled, but
thoroughly frightened, so much so that
they became demoralized and almost I'M
able to work.
The assistant engineer went to the
chief engineer and reported to him what
he had heard. He was called fool for
his pains. Presently his watch was over
and he was relieved. This new assistant
engineer heard the groans, too, and,
thoroughly alarmed, he appealed to the
chief engineer, and succeeded in getting
him out of Lis berth into the engine
room. The chief heard them, too, and
at once stopped the ship. The watch on
deck was called down and the machinery
was thoroughly examined by the light
oflanterns. What demoralized the super
stitious men about the engines was the
impossibility, as they believed, of
human being remaining alive amid the
swiftly moving, gigantic machinery, and
their natural inference was that ghosts
or fiends were present aud the ship was
doomed.
SAVED AT LAST.
By and by a lantern was lowered into
the crank pit, and a bundle of rags was
discovered at the bottom. On being
prodded a groan proceeded from the
rags. They were lifted up, and in them
was man, limp and bruised and bloody.
Terror and anguish and wounds had de.
prived him of sense and almost of hui
man semblance. He could not talk; he
could only utter groans, which pierced
the inmost hearts of the hearers, they
were so pitiful. Luckily for the poor
the surgeon of the ship was a
humane and skillful man. He said af-
forward that he was bound to save that
man if he could, so as to find out how
he got into the pit, and was not killed
at once when the engine began to move
The surgeon attended him night and
day. He was obliged to amputate the
arm or it would have mortified, it was
so dreadfully crushed. The other wounds
and bruises he healed. so that the man
was able to walk to the hospital when
he got to Liverpool. There he was cured
of everything except the shock to the
nerves which he received. That will
never be got over, Do his best, he says,
the thirty hours he spent in that torture
pit, with the great crank crushing into
his flesh tweDty-four times minute, can
never be got oat Of his mind. That hor-
ror is searel into his soul for the re-
mainder OF his life. New York Star.
Traa GrO,UiuO in Mid In