The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-02
MORE SURVIVORS
OF A BRIGANTINE THAT WAS SUNK
BY STRIKING AN ICEBERG.
Seventeen of Their Companions
Thrown After Fhey Had
-Succumbcd to Exposure.

ST. JOHNS, N. F., May 1.-The French
%brigantine Amadee, Captain Forth, from
St. Malo, arrived at St. Pierre tonight,
bringing four more survivors of the lost
~bringantine Valiant, which ~foundered as
the result of striking an iceberg off the
Grand banks on the night of April IA.
These four were the only survivors of
twenty-one men who left the sinking VAL
liant in a ships lifeboat, seventeen having
persisted as a result of exposure and frost
bites. The bodies of the seventeen dead
men were thrown overheard. The four sur
vivors claim to have kept themselves alive
by eating the flesh and drinking the blood
of a dog belonging to the brigantine Val
liant. This dog, they say they took with
them when they left the ship. They were
absolutely without water, provisions, oars,
sails and proper clothing when they left-the
brigantine. They say that they had only
time to jump from their berths into the
lifeboat, and that no opportunity was af-
forded them to make even slight provisions
against cold and starvation. The seventeen
men who died suffered excruciating tor
ments. The survivors seem to have Jared
little better. All four of the men are very
weak. Two of them will lose all of their
limbs, and the other two will lose their
feet as a result of the frost bites.
TIL men relate a story of a fierce strug-
gle on board the ship for places in the
boats, some thirty of the crew going down
with the wreck. A somewhat similar fight
occurred on board the lifeboat, the men
quarreling about the division of the flesh
of the dog which was killed on the morning
of the third day, when four men had al
ready persisted. Three died the next day,
six the next, and four the day previous 10
their rescue. The rescue occurred at mid
night on the sixth day. They were so ex-
hausted that they found it almost impos-
sible to shout when they saw the lights of
the brigantine Amadee, which came near
running them down in the darkness. The
missing lifebOats after leaving the Valiant,
but they are of the opinion that three
boatloads escaped from the wreck beside
the one already saved. Thes captain
persisted. The survivors rescued from the
lfeboat by the Amadee assert that none
OF the bodies was mutilated, and that in
this case NJ cannibalism was attempted.
The condition of the four men previously
rescued continues unchanged. The eircum-
stances surrounding this latest rescue are
such as to induce the friends of the miss
the other boats may yet be picked Up.
The news of the wreck of the Valiant
was brought to st. Pierre Miquelon on
April u by four men badly frozen, driven
to cannibalism, and finally rescued by the
French barkentine Victor Eugene. The
Valiant, it was announced, was on the
Grand banks. The lookout suddenly saw a
cloud before him which became a glistening
wall of ice, then there was a crash and
the men felt the deck settling beneath their
feet. A scramble for the boats followed.
1t is known that one of the boats was
Swamped. When the four men were picked
up by the barkentine Victor Eugene they
were so weak and cold that they could
scarcely lift their heads. From the first the
Eugene has been extremely doubtful owing
TO their weakened condition.