The San Francisco call., 1897-11-03
FALL VICTIMS
TO BERE-BERI
Officers of the British
Ship Ancona Die
at Sea.
Disease Contracted While
BeCalmed Off the Solo,
mon Islands.
Captain Robbins ana His Son Re-
cover From an Attack After
Weeks of Suffering.
Special Dispatch to The CALL

TACOMA, Nov. 2.-Captain Robbins OF
the British snip Ancona, now loading
wheat here, tells a remarkab BILE story of q
welI-nigh fatal experience that he under
went ct sea several months ago and from
the effects of which he is still suffering.
His <wo mates died at sea, and it re-
quired the greatest exertions of himself
and his son to escape from the fatal beri-
beri, the disease which afflicted them.
Had they succum bed their ship would
have gone ashore on Solomon Islands and
its crew been devoured by cannibals.
1t was last spring. during the Ancona' S
last long voyage, that Captain Robbins
noticed that his Ieet and legs were numb,
and. few weeks later. discovered that
they were not only without feeling but
greatly swollen. Several days afterward,
his son, aged q. made a similar observa-
ton, and soon the first and second mates
were attacked. The ship was among the
Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific.
whittier it had been driven out of its
course by a hurricane. The captain and
his son with difficulty kept on their feet
and at their posts. The crew could not
he trusted to navigate the ship in
strange waters, where light and adverse
winds detained them for forty-five days.
No pain was experienced from the
swollen mem bers, but an excessive Ian
guor took possession of the four officers.
and while on duty they would without
warning drop down again and again. All
their vitality was exhausted and with the
greatest mental effort did they keep from
being prostrated by the peculiar disease.
The first and second officers became rap
idly weaker, and in fortnight after the
first symptoms were felt were obliged to
abandon duty altogether.
The first mates thighs became swollen
and thirty-fve days after his first attack
he died suddenly. Ten days later the Sec
ond mate expired. Both men were buried
at sea. To the end they had suffered no
extreme pain which could be located in
any particular part of their body, but had
simply lain PROSTATE. wasting away until
their legs were like those of skeleton.
The fatal disease had gradually worked
10 their vital organs.
"Fancy my mental condition." said
Captain Robbins to-day. "There we lay
in strange waters, surrounded by canni-
balls | saw my mates linger and waste
away before me and realized that both m y
son ana myself were victims of the same
disease. Ii we, too, died no one would be
left 70 navigate the ship. The wild. saw
age, naked natives surrounded the vessel
daily. One day 100 of them foated about,
glaring at US from their canoes. | felt
that If we expired the ship would go
ashore, be seized by the cannibals and the
crew eaten.
With almost superhuman effort kept
a: my post, often falling to the deck from
sheer exhaustion. l urged my son to
exert himself and gradually. after three
weeks more suffering the swelling began
to diminish and we partially recovered.
When we reached Shanghai we both were
still suffering and even now my feet are
devoid of any sense of feeling most of the
time. The physicians say l will recover
eventually and that am not subject tc
another attack"