Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-09-07
GRUESOME SEA STORY.
CANNIBALISM RESORTED To BY
SHIPwRECKED SUFFERERS.
Tho steamer Woodruff Puts in Charleston
Harbor With Two Emaciatcd Survivors
of the "Drot"--Drew Lots to Select VIC
tim for Their Hunger.

etednler WOodruH, capt Milburn, ar
rived from Hamburg Saturday morning
On August 81, two hundred and fifty
miles south Of Charleston, the Wood
ruff picked up Maurice Anderson and
Goodmund Thomason. survivors of the
the Norwegian bark Drot, wrecked
August 10 on the Florida coast.
The Drot was caught in the recent
hurricane off the Florida straits and
went down in the storm. OF her crew
of seventeen men. eight clung to raft
consisting Of a part of the vessels deck
while the others went down with their
ship.
After tossing for day and night
at the mercy Of the waves, the raft
split in two pieces Six men clung
to the larger portion of it, two re-
naming on the other part One of
these latter was lost, while the other
was picked up some days ago by the
German steamer Cotonia and taken to
Baltimore
When the Woodruff sighted the
larger part of the raft just before
nightfall on Thursday, only two of
the six men who had originally clung
to it were still alive These were
Anderson and Thomas, and they were
in half crazed, half famished condi-
ton The men cannot speak English.
They are mentally and physically in
a terrible condition.
They are at the city hospital here
and the physicians of that institution
will not allow them to be seen and
talked to, but while being brought here
by the Woodruff they told a terrible
tory of what happened on their raft
before it was sighted by the British
steamer
The Drot, they say, went down on
their raft spl.'t. INTO nafeegert dav that
He caught many small fish and these
kept life in the six seamen but as day
followed day and they had no water
the men were crazed with thirst. The
owner of the fshinq line lost his mind
and jumped into the ocean, crying that
he was saved
The five men left then began u fight
against hunger as well as thirst. One
sickened and died and before the
breath was we'll out of his body his
comrades drank his blood aud devoured
his flesh. A second MEMBER Of the lit
tie company met similar fate Thom
as and Anderson declare that these two
men died naturally, but a worse fate
remained for third comrade, big
German seaman When they could no
longer eat the flesh of the two bodies
the three survivors decided that one of
their number must die that the others
might live
They agreed to cast lots and to abide
by the decision of chance. Luck was
against the big German, and, it is as
serted, that he met his death without
a murmur. He even tore the clothing
away from his chest that blow from
the knife might reach vital spot the
more surely He was stabbed to the
heart and the blood was drank by An
derson and Thomas as it gushed. from
the wound
They also cut strips Of flesh from the
body and devoured it. When discov
cred by the Woodruff the raft present
ed terrible spectacle The two crazed
seamen sat beside the three bodies
Thomas was throwing bits of human
flesh to sharks, Two Of the dead bod
les, half stripped of flesh, were decaying
The men were emaciated, covered with
sores and stains of blood and nearly
mad They told the men of the Wood
ruff that they had agreed between
them to cast lots to see which should
kill the other
If the steamer had arrived few
hours later there would have been
but one live man on the raft. An
derson is suffering from blow which
injured his chest
Captain Milburn of the Woodruff,
when asked about the story told by the
men of his ship. said he did not wish
to discuss the matter, but admitted the
truth of all the facts that had been
given He said that the raft presented
a spectacle too horrible for words
when he found it.