The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-01-21
CAST AWAY ON THEPACIFIC
Mark Twain Retells the Story Of Al
Amazing Adventure.

The title of Mark Twain's story in the
Century, MY Debut as a Literary FER
son" gives no idea Of the terrible Tragedy
Of which it tells. In May, Is6b, meE-
chairman was destroyed by nre at sea,
and the crew and two paSsenSets put on
in three boats with rat1onS Tor ten days.
Two Of the boats We're lost, bat the cap
tain with fifteen frightfully emacia1ed
men aboard, reached the Hawaiian islands
fOrty-rhree days later after a voyage
of 1900 miles OF more One Of the two
passengers still survives, and has long
been q professor in Trinity college. Hart
ford. Mark Twain got the story from
the survivors, whom he accompanied from
Honolulu to San franciscOs
1t is an amazing adventure There Is
nothing Of its sort in history tnat sur
passes IL in lmpOSsibiltes MADE posi-
bic. In ons extraordinary deJali-Jne
survival Of every person N Jne bOat--lL
probably stands alone IN the history OF
adventures Of its kind. Usually merely
q part Of a boats company surVIve-offl-
GERS. mainly. and other educated and
fenderlY reared men, unused TO hardship
and heavy labor. the unframed, roughly
reared hard workers Succumb- but IN
this case even the rudest and rougnest
stood the priyatons and misenes of the
voyage almost as Well as dld the cOileSe
bred young brothers and the captain
mean. physically The minds CT most OF
the sailors broke down IN the tourth
week and went 10 temporary ruin, hut
physically the endurance exhibited was
astonishing, Those men did not survive
DIV any fnFFkE OF ELEl- OWL VI CbEtcE, Lul
by merit of the character and intelligence
OF the captain, they lived by the mastery
of his spirit. Without him they would
have been children without a nurse. They
would have exhausted their provisions IN
a 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 ne was
drifting swiftly toward an ugly reef, and
an effort was made 10 hoist the san again ,
but Ii could not be 0one' tne men
strength was wholly exhausted, they
could not even pull an oar Lhey We're
helpless and death imminent. II was then
that they We're discovered by the two
Kankakes. who achieved the rescue They
swan out and manned the boat and
piioted her through a narrow ana nafuly
Noticeable break in the reet-the Only
break in it in q stretch Of thiTty-f1ve
miles The spot where the la1dlng was
made was the only one IN tEdt SJf,slch
where footing could have beer round on
the ghore- everywhere else pIeclpic6S
came sheer down into forty fathoms of
water Also. in all that stretch this was
the only spot. where anybody llVed- ,
Within ten days after the iandlhg an
the men but one were up ana creeping
about Properly they ought 10 nave killed
themselves with the 1000 OF me ldst
few days-some Of them, at any rate
men who had freighted their stou'acns
sVfrh strips OF Gather from OlG boots and
with chips from the butter casK. 2
freiesbfage which they did not get rid OF
lo- digestion, but by other means Inc
Cantain ard the two passengers dlC not
eat strips and chips. as the sailors uld,
but scraped the boot leather and the
wood ana made a pulp OF the scrapinBs
bv moistening them with water Inc
third mate told ma that the boots Were
old and full of holes then added tneught-
fully but the holes digeSted the best.
Speaking Of digestion, here Is q remark
able thing and worth noting during ms
strange VOYAGE. and for awhile afterWard
on shore the bowels Of some Of the men
,-irflI3lIv ceased from their functiOns. in
some cases there was no action for twenty
and thirty DAYS and in one case Tor forty
fourI SIeeping also came to be rare. ct
The men did very well without II. Dur1he
many DAYS the captain ala EOI sleep al
alI-twenty-One. ] think, on one stretch
When the landing was made, al the Ihen
we're successfully protected from over
eating except the "Portyghee; he es-
capped the watch and ate an incredlole
number of bananas. f52. the third mate
said butft was undoubtedly an eSaggefa-
ton. I think fl was Isl. He was already
nearly full of leather: il was hanging out
of his ears III 90 not state this on tne
third mates authority. for We nave seer
what sort of a person he was; / state il on
nv own) The ''Portyghee' ought 10 nave
died. Of course. and even now i seems 9
Ditv that he didn't; but he got well, anc
as early as any of them, and all fun VI
leather too, the way ne was. and butter
timber and handerchiefs and bananas
Some Of the men did eat haEdkercnleIs
in these last days, also Socks ana ne was
one Of them.