The National tribune., 1902-11-06
STARVATION DIETS.
Boiled Rope, seaweed. Raw Boots and Bar
nacles Have Saved Lives.
tAnS SWefS.D J

| The hardest fare that six strong men
and boy of 10 ever kept alive OH was the
daily menu of the Windover's survivors,
who were cast up on the Irish coast near
kllSegg Il few weeks ago They lived for
l6 days Oh stewed rope-yarn. without a
| crumb of anything else to help digest it,
| except water: and, though it made them
i'll, they kept alive on it and did not waste
away very much.
The Windover was bark carrying salt
between Spain and the States, with an
English crew, and she was dismasted and
abandoned about thousand miles out on
the Atlantic. Three of the crew were
killed by falling masts. and two others
were washed overbOard: but the other
seven took to the whalebOat and set out
for Britain. Being in too much of a hurry
they took too little food. but three large
butts of water. besides the tank the boat
already held. The result was they ate up
the provisions i'll four days. but had wa
ter enough for Il month. and. after starv
ing two days more. they tried boiling
lengths of tarred hemp rope into Il pulp
and swallowing it. They had keg of
parafline wax, and. though it made them
very i'll ut first, they eventually cOntriveh
to live on the boiled hemp, the tar, boiled
to jelly. adding to the nOuriShment of the
rope. They landed in comparatively good
health.
Two men who went to small island off
the Irish coast little while ago kept
themselves going for 10 days Oh diet
almost worse. They landed in Il boat which
was smashed by Il wave on their trying to
relaunch her, and they were left on the
bare, rocky island, which has only slight
scalp of coarse turf. without food. For
tunately there is IL spring OH the island,
but nothing i'll the way of food but gulls,
which they could not catch, and nothing to
make fire with as distress signal.
There are not even any shelltsh. as there
is no beach, and the pair had to subsist
for the 10 days on cold, raw seaweed
washed up by the tide. For two days they
starved. but after that they tackled the
Seaweed, making three meals Il day off il.
until rescued. When taken off they were
a good deal emaciated, but no i'll effects re-
suited. The same thing happened off the
same coast five years ago, when four fish
erwOmen were imprisoned on an inlet by
the loss of their boat. They lived on
'kelpie' grass for six days.
A diet of boots is one of the cOmmOnest
of last-resOurce foods: and, though it is
hard for wel-fed person 20 imagine that
any one could masticate and digest shoe
leather, a pair of long seaboots will keep
a man alive for fortnight. if he has a
little water. Capt. Maboly. of the found
cred steamer GwaliOr, and his second Off
GER created a record last year by living
for IL days on boot leather and pint of
water per day each.
OF course, no teeth can tear cowhide
boots; they have to be cut up and shredded
with knife and the shreds chewed and
swallowed. Boiling. even when possible, |
does no good at all, but takes from the |
boots what nourisliment they contain. A !
few ounces of leather. being so hard to
digest. stays the stomach for 10 or 20 |
hours.
The hest known and most useful of |
diets for wrecked or castaway |
people, however, is that of barnaces, and |
if anything of the kind happens to you
they will probably be your staple food.
Barnacles are long, tough, half shellfish,
creatures. that grow on the
of vessels. Three Englishmen
and q crew of Lascars who had been
forced to abOndon the sailing vessel North
Star few months ago kept themselves
going for over a week On barnacles and
only two of the crew died. The worst of
them Is that they give one internal cramps
and cause an insufferable thirst; but they
do nOurish the frame. You have to reach
under the vessels side and pull them of,