Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-04-14
EXPERIENCE OF sTOwAwAYs.
First Ship Wrecked and Then Locked
Up I'm Cold Storage.

FIRST ship Wrecked and Then Locked
Up i'm Cold Storage.
From the San Francisco Call.
From death in a shipwreck to death by
starvation and thirst in a steamers cold
storage room seems a stretch. Jacobson
and Harry Christensen nearly met their
doom from both such causes. and that with
in the last three weeks. On December 10
the schooner Vesta was totally wrecked
near the Carmanah light, and had it not
been for the heroism of Mate George Gen.
ereaux every soul on board would have per-
ished. He carried a line through the boil
ing surf to the Shore and by means of 1t
the shipwrecked sailors reached a place of
safety.
After reaching Seattle some of the men
came home overland, but the sailors In
question slowed away on the steamer Una
tilla. They got in the cold storage cham
Der on December 80 at $50 An. were seal
ed up at Port Townsend, and did not get
out or their prison until January 2 at 4:15
pm. 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 I'm order to
allay their thirst, and they were so weak
from hunger that they could not stand.
Chief Steward Curtis saw to 1t that they
got both food and drink, and when the
Umattlla docked both the men were able to
go ashore.
All tidt we suuereu curing our lives did
not compare with what we had to endure
during the last three days." said jacobson
on board the steamer. 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 place where we were
protected from the wind. That was the
freezing chamber, and there was a lot of
trunks and valises in IT. We went to sIeep
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 Ruf
we did not know that fact, and went to
sleep egain. intending to show ourselves on
deck when the Umatilla 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 a while we gave
up. Then we got hungry, but the hunger
was socn swallowed up in the raging thirst.
whether l was cold or warm hungry or
full. know not. All can remember Is
that all-consuming thirst A certain amount
OF moisture gathered on the iron mast and
that We licked of every time it gathered.
When 1t would all be licked from our feet
as nlgn as our heads We would pile up the
baggage until we reached the roofing and
then we would begin 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
seas sea- Were broken. We were taken on deck
and could hardly gasp Water 1t was
given to us, and then in a little while we
got hungry. That meat they gave us tasted
better to me than anything ever ate in INV
life We are all right now. but I never
want to go through an experience like that
again.
Luckily the cold air was not turned info
the chamber or the two men wouid have
been frozen to death.