The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-11-08
CASTAWAYS.
Mark Twain Tails the s.ory Of an
Amazing Adventure.
FORIY.THREEDAYS ina BOAT.
Fifteen Emaeiated Men Finally Reaeh
Land-one Of the Survivors Now a
Prominent Massachusetts College
Professor = Wonderful Digestive
Qualities Displayed.

Century; Mark Twalp's story, "My
Debut as a Literary Person gives no
idea Of the terrible tragedy Of which
1t tells. IN May. 1856. a merchantman
was destroyed by fire at sea, ana the
crow and two passengers put of IN
three boats. with ratiOns for ten days.
Two of the boats were lost, but tho
captains, with tiftcen frightfully
emaclated men aboard, reached the
Hawaiian islands forty-three days Ia.
tor, after a voyage Of four thousand
miles or SO. one of the two passen-
gers stlll survives, and has long beer
professor in Trinity college, Hart
ford. Mark Twain got the story from
the survivors. whom he accompanied
from Honolulu to San Francisco.
It iSan amusing adventure. There Il
nothing Of It's sort In history that sur
passes It in imposslbllIties made posi-
BILE, In one extraordinary detail-the
survival Of every person in the boat
1t probably stands alone in the history
Of adventures OF its kind. Usually
merely part Of boats company
survive Officers. mainly, and other ed
ucated and tenderly reared men, I'M
used to hardship and heavy labor; the
unframed. roughly reared, hard work
ers succumb. But in this case even tho
rudest and toughest stood the priva-
tons and miserles Of the voyage al
most as well us did the college bred
young brothers and the captain.
mean. physically. The minds of most
OF the sailors broke down in the
fourth week and went to temporary
ruin. but physically the endurance ex-
hlblted was astonishing. Those men
did not survive by any merit Of their
own. OF course, but by merit of the
character and intelligence of the cap
tain; they lived by the mastery Of his
spirit. Without him they would have
been children without nurse. They
would have exhausted their provisions
in week. and their pluck would not
have lasted even as long as the provis-
ions.
The boat came near to being wreck
ed at the last. As It approached the
shore the sail was let so, and came
down with a run; then the captain saw
that he was drifting swiftly toward an
ugly reef, and an effort was made to
hoist the sail again; but 1t could not
be done: the mems strength was
wholly exhausted; they could not even
pull an oar They were helpless, and
death imminent, 1t was then that they
were discovered by the two Kauakas
who achieved, the rescue. They swan
out and manned the boat and piloted
her through a narrow and hardly mo-
tIceable break in the roof-the only
break in It in a stretch of thirtyrfive
miles The spot where the landing
was made was the only one in that
stretch where footing could have been
found on the shore; everywhere else
precIplces came sheer down into forty
fathoms of water. Also, in all that
stretch this was the only spot where
anybody lived.
Within ten days after the landing all
the men but one were up and creeping
about. Properly. they ought to have
killed themselves with the food" Of
the last few dayB-some of them, ut
any rute-men who had frelghted their
stomaehs with strips Of leather from
old boots and with chips from the but
ter-cask; freightage which they did
not get rid OF by digestion, but by
other means. The captain and the two
passengers did not eat strips and chips,
Us the sailors did, hut sctaped the boot
leather and the wood. and made q
pulp of the scrapIngs by moisteninE
them with water, The third mate told
me that the boots were old and full Of
holes: then added, thoughtfulIy, but
the holes dlgested the best" Speaking
OF digestion. here ia a remarkable
thing. and worth noting: during this
strange voyage, and for while after
ward on shore, the bowels Of some of
the men virtually ceased from their
functions: In some cases ther was no
action for twenty and thirty days, and
in one case for forty-four! Sleeping
also came to be rare. Yet the men did
very well without 1t, During many
days the captain did not sleep at all
twonty-one, think, on one stretch,
When the landing was made, all the
men we're successfully protected from
overeRtEng except the "PoFtyghee"i he
escaped the watch and ate an incred-
Iblo number OF bananas; a hundred
and iifty.two. the third mate said, but
this was undoubtedly an exlggcration;
/ think 1t was u hundred and fifty-onc
He was already nearly full Of leather;
It was hanging out OF his cars, q do
not state this on the third mates nu-
thorlty. for we have seen what sort Of
person he was: state It on my OWN.
The "Portyghee" ought to have died, Of
course. and even now II seems pity
that no didn't; but he got well, and us
early rs any of them; and all full Of
leather. too. the way he was, and but
ter-timher and handkerchlefs and BAN
anas. Some of the men did eat hand
kerchIefs in these last days, also socks;
and he was one of them,
A Night Of Terror.
"Awfulanxletyw felt for the widow
Of the brave General Burnhnm, Of Ma
chIas. Me-. when the doctors. said she