The Forrest City times., 1900-07-27
IMPULSE SAVED A LIFE.
"esc"e by Pilot Who Pushed Through storm Despite the
 Warnings of Danger.

Men in our line of business hay, plenty of queer experiences" said i. veteran bar pilot, relates the New Or leans Times-Democrat, but 1 think th, strangest that ever fell to my lot hap pened in 1893, right after the grea hurrlcane that swept down the soutf coast and drowned so many poor fisher folks on the little islands. The storu blew itself away on a Sunday" the pilo, went on, ''and next Sunday morning having nothing in particular to do, ] decided to take our steamer, which wa, a handy little 12-knot craft, and go fol two hours run out into the gulf iron South Point to see what I could see The water was still full of driftwoof and wreckage from the fishermen, cabins, but we noticed nothing in par ticular until we had been out about ar hour. Then one of the men on the boa sighted big red can buoy over to tn, southwest. It was a government mari that had broken away from it's moor ing and he suggested that we 20 apf see where it belonged. Ordinarily ] would have said all right, but some thing-I don't know what or why made me refuse. 'No,' said I. we won' change our course. Keep her heat straight out for an hour longer ant maybe we'll see something better thar runaway red cans
 Il had no idea that my words would come true, but in half an hour we cam, in sight of little raft dead ahead of u, and as we got nearer we made out wh6i seemed to be child on top of it w, ran to within couple of hundred feel before we stopped and then we Saw tha. the raft was evidently the floor O.. some fisherman's cabin. The child wa, boy of 14 or thereabonts and he wa. sitting down with his head hangins forward on his breast and his arm, stretched out clutchih hg the blanks. H. looked for all the world as if he were dead, but he was op ly asleep, and wher rang the bell he strengthened up al of sudden and glared at the ship lik. person in dgeam. All he had on wa, little shirt.) And while we lowered { small boat jand pulled over to him h.. sat so, staying and saying not word tie had Strength enough to climb in but wheh we reached the ship h, tainted.
 The poor boy had been on thai doatin9 floor for seven days and Il: honrsa continued the pilot. He wa. the Son of a Gascon oysterman wht lve4 on Grand isle, and the hurricane had caught him alone in their cabin lt tore their ramshackle hut to piece. And he found himself adrift on the floor which had hung together. How he lived through the storm is one oi those mysteries that can never be ex plained, but he was carried far off tn, coast and next morning was out oi sight of land in the open gulf. The. followed solid week spent without food, water or shelter of any kind. ,, have been seafaring man all my Tiff. and have known of many wonderful es capes from death on the deep waters but never of anything to compare with this. The boy had to lie down on tho
 
 he grew weak the crayfsh bit him from head to foot until he was a mass of wounds. He had been very strong sturdy fellow and before the storm hao weighed 160 pounds. When we rescued him he weighed less than 100.
 "Of course most of what I have re. lated we learned afterward, when he was strong enough to talk. As soon as we got him aboard we headed fol South Point, IS miles away, for, as bac luck would have it, there was not z particle of food or liquor on the ship Fortunately, however, we hailed tho fruiter Breakwater and got a little brandy and can of condensed milk and it was marvellous how a few spoon ruls of nourishment revived the lad At quarantine l turned him over ts the doctor and in a week he was prac tically we'll. Then an uncle came after him and l have never heard from hin ince."