The Portland daily press., 1895-07-10
EIGHT AW Full DAYS.
Insane Co ok in the Hold of a Sailing
Vessel.

In Temperature of 100 Degrees and
Without Food OF Water-Capt. Crock
| er's Strange story-He Arrived in Port.
| land Yesterday.
| Captain James B. Crocker of Franklin,
Mass, formerly of Machiasport, Me-,
came to Portland yesterday on a brief
visit to the family of his father, Capt
Jacob B. Crocker. He came from New
York, where he arrived with his vessel.
the schooner Eunice L. Crocker, on the
Fourth. He was from Santa Cruz, with
a load OF mahogany and cedar logs, and
the voyage was memorable one because
OF most extraordinary occurrence.
| AS the schooner was being towed
through the Narrows, after the quaran-
tine doctor had came aboard, frightful
apparition suddenly came up through the
open hatch from the hold 1t was a man,
in such terrible condition of emaciation
that he seemed like a veritable living
| skeleton.
The doctor and Captain Crocker were
conversing at the time and the former
made an exclamation of surprise and in
quiry.
II haven't seen that man for eight
days, said Captain Crocker s'I sup
posed ne had jumped over board and
| drowned himself -
he then related the following remark
able story. The apparition was none
other than the ships cook, a Portuguese
mulatto, named Henry Silbie, aged SO
years, who had shipped in the vessel two
years before in Boston, and had sailed
with her ever since. He had always been
good cook, and in other ways valuable
man until this last voyage up from Santa
Cruz. Soon after they set sail he began
to act queerly and exhibit decided
symptoms of insanity. He would declare
to the captain that as soon as the potatoes
gave out he expected to be killed by one
OF the crew. Then he would go forward
and declare to the crew that he expected
the captain was going to kill him as soon
as the onions gave out.
On one occasion he was in the cabin
with the second mate, and made such
violent jump and exclamation that he
frightened the mate almost into fits. The
captain heard the noise and came down
to find the cook sitting on the floor and
staring wildly. He asked him what the
matter was, and the cook replied that he
had seen ghost.
The captain concluded that the man
had the horrors, since he kept pretty full
OF West India rum all the time they were
in port.
On the 26th of June, the cook suddenly
disappeared, and it was naturally sup
posed that he had jumped overheard
However the matches being open, a search
was made in the hold, but without sue
cess. A short time before the sailors had
seen the cook loading revolver. It was
thought best to put on the matches, lest,
if the crazyi man were in the hold, he
should come out in the night and use his
revolver. %
Three days after the disappearance the
matches were taken off and another search
of the hold was made. The heat and
moisture from the cedar logs were so in
only few minutes dimly and would
then go out. 1t was SO difficult to
breathe, and SO dark that the search
could not be very thorough, but there
was no trace of the missing man.
The CONSERVATION of the captain and
crew can he imagined when he finally
appeared in his frightful condition after
an absence of eight days. He was able to
talk and seemed rational He said that
his mind left him and when he came to-
he found himself in the hold in utter
darkness among the logs and unable to
get out. He declared that
he had had nothing to eat or drink for
the entire eight days Though he could
speak, he could not open his mouth wide
enough to show his swollen tongue to the
physician.
1t seems incredible that any man could
live for eight days in that awful atmos-
phere of damp heat at one hundred and
twenty degrees above zero, in which the
lanterns would not burn, and without
any food or water. Yet such seems to
have been the case.
After eating some food the cook rapidly
recovered his strength and seemed so
rational that he was not taken to an in
sane asylum. but allowed to depart to his
home in Boston.
1t is an extraordinary story, but
Captain Crocker's own statement to the
PRESS is a guarantee of it's truth
Grand production of the Two Orphans
at the Pavilion this week.