The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1900-01-04
AMAZING ADVENTURE
Story of a cast-Away Ships Crew
as Related by Mark Twain.
The Survival of Every Person in the
Boat the Most Remarkable in
History of Adventures OF
This Kind.

. OcDut as a 1ltcAdhJ iSibOhs gives ~
4 idea of the terrible tragedy Of which i
v tells. In May, 1866, merchantmen
I was destroyed by fire at ea,and the crew
9 and two passengers put off in three
boats, with rations for ten days. Two
! Of the boats were lost, but the captains
with Is frightfully emaciated men
aboard, reached the Hawaiian islands
43 days later, after voyage of 1000
miles or so. One of the two passengers
still survives, and has long been a pro-
fessor in Trinity college, Hartford.
Mary Twain got the story from the sur
vivors, whom he accompanied from
Honolulu to San Francisco.
ut is an amazing adventure. There
is nothing of its sort in history that sur
passes it in impossibilities made possi-
Bile. In one extraordinary detail-the
survival of every person in the boat--it
probably stands alone in the history
| of adventures Of its kind. Usually
merely a part of boats company sur
vive-officers, mainly, and other educat-
ed and tenderly reared men, unused to
hardship and heavy labor; the un-
drained, roughly reared, hard workers
succumb.. But in this case even therud-
est and toughest stood the privations
and miseries of the voyage almost as
well as did the college-bred young
brothers and the captain. mean, phys
ically. The minds Of most of the sail
ors broke down in the fourth week and
went to temporary ruin, but physically
the endurance exhibited was astonish-
ing. Those men did not survive by any
merit of their own, of course, but by
merit Of the character and intelligence
of the captain; they lived by the mas
terry of his spirit. Without him they
would have been children without a
nurse. They would have exhausted
their provisions in week, and their
pluck would not have lasted even as
long as the provisions.
"The boat came near to being
wrecked at the last. AS it approached
the shore the sail was let go, 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 it could not be
done; the mems strength was wholly
exhausted; they could not even pull an
oar. They were helpless, and death i'm
minent. 1t was then that they were dis
covered by the two Kanakas who
achieved the rescue. They swarm out
and manned the boat and piloted her
through narrow and hardly notice.
able break in the reef only break
in it in a stretch Of 35 milesl 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 precipices came sheer
down into 40 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 creep G
ing about. Properly, they ought to have !
killed themselves with the food of ,
the last few days-some of them, at s
any rate--men who had freighted their I
with strips of leather from I
I'D boots and with chips from the but S
er-cask; a freightage which they did /
lot get rid of by digestion, but by other t
means. The captain and the two pas a
engers did not eat strips and chips, as t
he sailors did, but scraped the boot S
Gather and the wood, and made pulp b
II the scrapings by moistening them
With water. The third mate told me G
hat the boots were old and full of holes; I
hen added thoughtfully, but the holes I
igested the best Speaking of diges- o
ion, here is a remarkable thing, and I,
'orth noting; during this strange voy- B
ge, and for awhile afterward on shore,
he bowels of some of the men virtually
eased from their functions; in sofile
ases there was no action for 20 and 90 Ii
avs, and in one case for AL Sleeping 10
$50 came to be rare. Yet the men did WI
cry we'll without it. During many CT
lys the captain did not sleep at ALL lal
|, think. on one stretch. dii
When the landing was made. all the
EN- were successfully protected from
creating except the Portyghee;' he T,
capped the watch and ate an incredible a.
lmbr Of bananas; hundred and fifty y"
20, the third mate said. but this was tn
ldoubtedly an exaggeration; think ha
vas 15l. He was already nearly full -;
leather; It was hanging out Of his =.
rs. q DO not state this on the third oil
ate's authority, for we have seen what an
n Of person be was; state it on nv -
ny The Portyghee' ought to have ~
ed, OF course, and even now it seems TN
pitv that he didn't. h,,. =. -. III 40