The age-herald., 1898-01-30
 TORTURE FOR STOWAWAYS Without Drink or Food for Near
 ly Three Days. LICKED THE IRON MAST The Moisture or "Sweat" Undoubtedly Kept Them Alive-They Were Locked
 In by Accident
 
From the San Frascisco Can.

From the San Frascisco Call.
 From death in shipwreck to death by starvation and thirst in a-steamer's cold storage room seems a stretch. Jacobson and Harry Christiansen nearly met their doom from both such causes, and that within the last three weeks.
 On Dec 10 the schooner vesta was to- tally wrecked near the Carmanah light, and had it not been for the heroism of Mate George Genereaux every soul on board would have perished. He carried line through the boiling surf to the shore, and by means of it the shipwrecked sail- ors reached a place of safety. The wounds and. bruises of Jacobson and Christansen received on that occasion can still be seen on their bodies.
 After reaching Seattle some of the men came home overland, but the sailors in question slowed away on the steamer Uma- tilla- They got in the cold storage cham Der on Dec. 30, at 8:30 a. m., were sealed up at Port Townsend and did not get out of their prison until Jan. 2. at 4:15 D. m. They were then more dead than alive and had to be carried on deck. Their tongues were swollen and lacerated from licking the sweat from the mast in order to ailay their thirst, and they were so weak from hunger that they could not stand. Chief Stewart Curtis saw to it that they got both food and drink, and when the Uma-
 
 men were able to go ashore.
 "All that we suffered during our lives did not compare with what we had to en- dure during the past three days" said Jacobson on board the steamer yesterday. ''The Vesta was caught in the gale that wrecked the steamer Cleveland, and we had a terrible time of 1t. Waves were washing over the boat continuously, and had it not been for Mate Genereaux, who swam ashore through the breakers, we would all have been drowned As 1t was, Christiansen and have been in the hos pital at Seattle
 From where we went ashore we walked to the lighthouse, where our clothes were dried and food given us. From there we went to Neah Bay in a row boat and from ther to Port Townsend, where we were paid off. Christiansen and I then went to Seattle, where we were sent to the hos pital. When we were discharged we could not get a ship and no sailor boarding house would take us in, so we resolved to stow away on the Umatlla. We got into the forepeak and hid among the cargo but on the way to Port Townsend it got so cold that we crept into a place where we were protected from the wind. That was the freezing chamber, and there were a lot of trunks and valises in it. We went to sleep and were awakened by the crew closing up the place in which we were hiding. The baggage was being sealed up by the custom house officers in order to save searching when the vessel got to San Francisco. But we did not know that fact, and went to sleep again, intending to show ourselves on deck when the Uma- tilla had left Victoria and was on her way to sea.
 You can imagine our feelings when we tried to get out of the chamber and could not Then we kicked and yelled but no one could hear us and for awhile we gave up. Then we got hungry, but the hunger was soon swallowed up in the raging thirst.
 
 Whether I was cold or warm hungry or full, know not. All I can remember is that all-consuming thirst. certain amount of moisture gathered on the iron mast, and that we licked off every time 1t gathered. When it would all be licked from our feet high as our heads we would pile up the baggage until we reached the roffing, and then we would be-. gin at the bottom again. Finally, when the crew of the steamer was getting ready for the coming docking of the ship, we made ourselves heard and the seals were broken. We were taken on deck and could barely gasp 'Waterr It was given to us and then in little while we got hungry. That meat they gave us tasted better to me than anything I ever ate in my life. We are all right now. but never want to go through an expe- rience like that again.
 Luckily the cold air was not turned into the chamber or the two men would have been frozen to death.