The San Francisco call., 1903-12-20
LIVE ON ROPE
YARN STEWED
Survivors of the Bark WindOver
Undergo Severe HardsnipS on
the Bleak Coast of Ireland
SLIM DIET FOR MANY DAYS
How Men Can Sustain Life on
Nothing but Seaweed and
Kelpie Grass and Water

The hardest fare that six strong
men and a boy Of IS ever kept alive on
was the daily menu OF the Windover's
survivors who were cast up on the
irish coast near Kilsegg a few weeks
ago They lived for sixteen days on
stewed rope yarn. without crumb or
anything else to help digest it except
water. and. though it made them ILL.,
the- kept alive on it and did not
waste away very much.
The Windover was bark carrying
salt between Spain and the United
States. with an English crew, and she
was dismasted and abandoned about
1000 miles out in the Atlantic. Three
of the crew were killed by the falling
rnasts and two others were washed
overheard, but thesother seven took to
the whaleboat and set out for Britain.
Being i'm too much Of a hurry they
took too little food. but they had
three large butts Of water besides the
tank the boat already held. The re-
suit Was that they ate up the provis-
visions in four days, but had water
enough for a month, and after starry
ING for two days more they tried
boiling lengths Of tarred hemp rope
into a pulp and swallowing it. They
had keg Of paraffin wax and though
Il made them very i'll at first, they
eventually contrived to live on the
boiled hemp. the boiled paraffin added
TO the nourishment Of the rope. They
landed in comparatively good health.
sEAWEED AND KELPIE GRASS.
Two men who went to a small island
OF 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 their trying TO relaunch her,
and they were left on the bare, rocky
island wit h0ut food. Fortunately there
is a spring on the island, but nothing
IN the way Of food but gulls, 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
sea weed washed up by the tide. For
two DAYS they starved, but after that
they tackled the seaweed, making
LLllft AlEalc q Aae DAA Al nAAAAA AN7N AA'- u
When taken of they were a good deal
emaciated. but no i'll effects resulted
The same thing happened off the
same coast five years ago, when four
fsherwomen were imprisoned on an
islet by the loss Of their boat They
lived on 'kelpie" grass for six days.
A diet Of boots is one Of the COM
monest of last resource foods, and
though it is hard for a well-fed per-
son TO imagine that any one could
masticate and digest the leather, a
pair Of long seaboats will keep a man
alive for fortnight if he has little
water.
STEWED LEATHER NOT so BAD.
Captain Maboly of the foundered
steamer Gwailor and his second officer
created a record last year by living for
seventeen days on boot leather and a
pint Of water a 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 possi-
bic, does no good at all. but takes
from the boots what nourishment they
contain. A few ounces of leather, be-
ing so hard 10 digest, stay the stOm-
ach for fifteen or twenty hours
The best known and most useful Of
starvation diets for wrecked or cast
away people, however, is that Of bar
nacles, and If anything of the kind
happens to you they will probably be
your staple food. Barnacles are long.
tough, half shellhsh. half vegetable
creatures that grow on the undersides
Of vessels. Three Englishmen and a
crew Of Lascars who had been forced
10 abandon the sailing vessel North
Star a few months ago kept them
selves going for over a week on barna-
cles. and only two Of the crew died.
The worst Of them is that they give
one internal cramps and cause an in
sufferable 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
a starving person could possibly eat
them. Many a castaway crew, how
ever. has found them better than
nothing. Nashville American.
The Joke on Himself.
Rear Admiral Charles S. Cotton. who
rnr II,