The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1896-11-20
EBENSBURG, PA. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20. 1896.

seemed men, for their faces and forms
were those of frightful skeletons. They
had almost lost the power of articula-
ton, and not one of them was able to
rise upon his feet.
After being carefully lifted to our
deck, they showed an anxiety to in
form us of others of their vessels crew
who were somewhere drifting in a like
condition. Three or four of us ran
aloft, away up to the royal mast heads.
In a moment or two hailed the
deck, announcing discovery, and the
ship was headed for the forlcrn OBJ
iect which we made out upon the dis
tant waters.
We came down from our lookout to
find one of the five poor sufferers al
ready dying, and our kind hearted tars
doing all in their power to alleviate
the misery of the others.
That portion of the wreck for which
we were steering was soon visible to all
hands, and we hove-to and towed
it alongside with our boat, it was seen
that among the nine persons who lay
upon il We're a woman and boy.
Until this moment / had not con-
neeted the Catherwood with the tragic
scene, but the sight of these two in
spired n sudden thought of her, and
recalled my dream of the night be
fore.
Yet that they could be Mrs. Dore
and her son appeared almost impossible
this ghasNy woman and boy who re-
sembled nothing living that L had ever
seen before.
The child appeared at the point of
death, but the woman, although very
weak, seemed to have borne up better
than any other of the sufferers. She
could speak with no great difficulty,
and her first words, upon being handed
over the ships side, were those of
anxiety for her boy.
do not mind me now," she said AT
tend to him. Oh, do not tell me that he
is past help!"
Still, we could not see in her Mrs.
Dore, or in her son the little lad we
had SO petted as a most welcome yis
itor only a few weeks before.
But presently she added:
I'VE belong to the brig Catherwood.
| remember your faces. | came on
board your ship off Brazil. Save my
poor boy! oh, to lose him now, after
all this suffering,''
Her woeful, sunken eyes were wholly
| dry, as she spoke, but those of our hon
| est sailors were moist indeed.
| In the meantime. one of the unfortu-
| mates had already breathed his last on
| our deck, and most of the others looked
| as if they must soon follow him.
There were now 13 remaining, five
| of whom died within three days; but
| Capt. Dore, with his wife and boy, and
| five of the foremost hands, began slow
| ly to mend.
| They told US that the Catherwood had
] been caught in hurricane to the south
| west of Bermuda. Her masts were
| swept by the board, and she became
| water-logged, but the oil she had below
| prevented her sinking. The casks, how
| ever, thumped SO heavily as, after some
| days, to start the deck, which, break
ing into two parts, fioated with the
| crew, the remainder of the vessel go
| ing down.
| There had been 25 persons on board.
of whom three were lost in the hurri-
| cane, while eight had died of starvation
before our ship hove in sight; the only
morSel of food tasted by the sufferers
during their ordeal of II days having
| been the carcass of small dog belong
ing to the captain.
| \ week after the rescue, we placed
the survivors safe on shore at our own
port, where in few months they re-
gained their former strength.
Capt. Dore, being under no neces-
sity of returning to England, accepted
the command of a fine American W hale
man, while Arthur, intelligent as
modest, became the most popular boy
in the school of his suburban neighbor-
hood.
BY the time | had told the master the
story, the boys had all gathered around !;
and | left them standing, with looks of
admiring sympathy, about their little
marine associate, who had seen and suf-
fered so much more than themselves
Golden Days