The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1897-01-08

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the big merchant ship.
| Put we were fast sweeping to the
rorthward. The West India islands
were passed, and ceased to think of
the English brig as lowering anywhere
near our path.
One night, however, when we were
almost up with Bermuda, dreamed of
going on board the Catherwood, and
seeing her crew in the most terrible
distress. / have little faith in dreams,
yet 30 vivid was the impression con-
veyed by the one in question, that dur
ing all the following watch felt my
spirits oppressed by melancholy which
would permit me to think only of ship
wreck, starvation and death.
1t was early that forenoon, when one
CT our men, at work aloft, reported an
unusual object off the lee-bow. Upon
standing in its direction, we discovered
| it to be q portion of vessels deck, on
which were five men. Yet they hardly
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 like
condition. Three or four of us ran
aloft, away up to the royal mast heads.
In a moment or two we hailed the
deck, announcing n discovery, and the
ship was headed for the forlcrn OBJ
ject 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 as we hove-to and towed
it alongside with our boat, it was seen
that among the nine persons who lay
upon il were q woman and boy.
Until this moment 1 had not con-
nected the Catherwood with the tragic
scene, but the sight of these two in
spired 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 ghasry 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.
ard 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 helpl"
Still, we could not see in her Mrs
Dore. or in her son the little lad we
had so petted us most welcome WIS.,
itor only n few weeks before.
But presently she added;
1--WE belong to the brig Catherwood.
I remember your faces. 7 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 10 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 n 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, floated with the
crew. the remainder of the vessel 60
ing down.
There had been 25 persons en- board.
of whom three were lost in the hurri
cane, while eight had died of starvation
before our snip move IN slSht; 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.
A week after the rescue, we placed
the survivors safe on shore at our own
port. where in n few months they re-
gained their former strength.
Capt. Dore, being under no ncces-
sity of returning to England, accepted |
the command of fine American whale
man, while Arthur, as intelligent rs
modest, became the most popular boy |
in the school of his suburban neighbor-
hood.
BY the time 1 had told the master the |
story. the boys had all gathered around: