The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-11-01
STARVATION DIETS.
Boiled Rope, Seaweed, Raw Boots
and Barnacles Have Saved Lives.

The hardest fare that six strong men
and boy of Is ever kept alive on was
the daily menu of the WindOver'S sur
vivors, who were cast up on the irish
coast near Kilsegg a. few weeks ago
They lived for sixteen days on 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 a bark carrying
salt between Spain and the states, with
an English crew, and she was dismast-
ed and abandoned about thousand
miles ont on the Atlantic. Three of the
crew were killed by falling masts, and
two others were washed overheard; 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, be-
sides the tank the boat already held.
The result was they ate up the provis-
ions in four days, but had water enough
for a month, and after starving two
days more, they tried boiling length of
tarred hemp rope into a pulp and swal-
lowing it. They had a keg of Daraffine
wax, and though it made them very
i'll at first, they eventually contrived to
live on the boiled hemp, the tar, boiled
to a jelly, adding to the nourishment
of the rope. They landed in compara-
lively good health.
Two men who went to a small island
off the Irish coast a little while ago kept
themselves going for ten days on a diet
almost worse. They landed in a boat
which was smashed by a wave on theif
trying to relaunch her and they were
left on the bare. rocky island, which
has only slight scalp of coarse turf,
without food Fortunately there is
spring on the island. but nothing in the
way Of food but gulIs, which they could
not catch. and nothing to make a fire
with as a distress signal. There are not
even any shellfish, as there is no beach.
and the pair had to subsist for the ten
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 a day off it, until
rescued. When taken off they were a
good deal emaciated, but no Ill effects
resulted. The same thing happened Oft
the same coast five years ago, when four
| fisherwomen were imprisoned on an in
/ let by the loss of their boat. They lived
on ''kelpie" grass for six days.
! A diet of boots is one of the common
/ est of last resource foods; and though
it is hard for a well fed person to inn
agine that any one could masticate and
digest shoe leather, pair Of long sen
| boots will keep q man alive for fort
night if he has a little water. Captain
! Nc holy of the foundered steamer Gwa-
lior, and his second officer created g
record last year by living for seventeen
days on boot leather and a pint of water
per day each.
OF course, no teeth can tear cowhide
boots: they have to be cut up and
shredded with a knife, and the shreds
chewed and swallowed Boiling, even
when possible, does no good at all, but
takes from the boots what nourishment
they contain. A few ounces of leather,
being so hard to digest, stays the stom-
ach for fifteen or twenty hours.
The best known and most useful of
starvation diets for wrecked or casta-
way people. however, is that of marna-
cles, and if anything Of the kind hap
pens to you they will probably be your
staple food. Barnacles are long, tough
half shellfish, half vegetable creatures,
that grow on the underside of vessels.
Three Englishmen and a crew of Las
cars who had been forced to abandon
the sailing vessel North Star a few
months ago kept themselves going for
over a week on barnacles and ony 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 off, taking care not to leave the
best half of them sticking to the planks.
Only q starving person could possibly
eat them. Many a castaway crew, how
ever, has found them better than moth
! ing.-From Answers.