The St. Louis Republic., 1903-09-20

OFFICERS COMMIT SUICIDE.
Men Fight for Floating Pieces
of Wreckage Only TO Sicken on
the Oily Water They Swal.
lowed, Drop OFF and Die.
REPUBLIC SPECIAL.

| REPUBLIC SPECIAL.
| New York, Sept 19.-Like the lucky
| piucky men. sung by Rudyard Kipling. in
| his famous Ballad of Bolivar" were the
six survivors of the Standard Oil tank
steamer MeSicano, wrecked OF Cape Hat
teras In Tuesdays hurricane. who came
| back safe to port on the steamer Vidar to-
| day.
OF the twenty-four souls on board the
| oil steamer. only seven survived-''seve en-
| men from all the world''-who drifted for
hours in the turmoil Of the sea until. as
Kipling says. they euchred God AL
mighty's storm, clufted the eternal sea-
| The six men presented a sorry sight
when they landed to-day. They were all
of them nearly naked when picked up by
the Vidar, and had been In the water
ten hours, and the crew Of the Vidar had
| furnished them odd pieces Of clothing as
best they could. To add to the horror of
| their long fight In the terrible sea of
| Tuesday night, the water all about them
was covered with the crude oil from the
| exploded tanks of the Mexicano. and the
! quantities they drank in their struggles
| sickened them.
The castaways are August Osterlund and
Simon Badera. seamen. from Finland;
Ieonidas Korpedes. fireman. Greek: Jos
Poche and Jean Fonts. firemen, Portu-
guese, and Jose Clementine. seman, a Fill
pino. from Manila. The seventh survivor,
Domingo Ferailobre. a Spanish sailor. was
picked up and carried to Norfolk. Va.
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.
All were physical wrecks. The pounding
seas had tossed them about the decks Of
the Mexicano before she foundered until
their bodies were bruised and bleeding.
After they went overheard they were
tossed for ten hours In q raging sea, with
| nothing but life buoys and the splintered
| planking OF the wreck between them and
death.
Suffering hunger, thirst and despair, they
were pounded and whiried by the noun
famous breakers until they almost went
mad
August osterland told the awful story Of
the wreck. He said:
Tuesday afternoon we ran into the
storm forty miles Oft Hatteras.
We. weathered it until nightfall, when
the wind rose to eighty miles. and in the
rain and darkness We lost our bearings.
Lifeboats and everything on deck were
swept away. Captain King came himself
to the forecastle and told us We were .up
against it He told US to put on our life
preservers. and be ready for the worst.
We're all on an equal fotting now.' he
said. Let every man lockout for himself
He told US II we liked We could come to
the bridge. There were not half enough
lie preservers. and what we had were
rotten. so we picked up what timber we
could put our hands on.
The boatswain refused to leave his
bunk. Tn going down: Pm going down
with the Ship he said. Two of the stokers
remained below, taking a chance that we
would weather the blow. The rest Of us
went to the bridge with the officers. Cap
tain King was very quiet. The officers
whispered among themselves. The scream
OF the wind and the rage Of the water
were. awful. We could think OF nothing
but keeping on our feet. and we knew
just what was ahead of us. The end came
pretty soon. A tremendous wave lifted US
until the deck was almost perpendicular.
Then we knew she was turning turtle and
jumped.
OFFICERS COMMITTED SUICIDE.
Before I hit the water, heard the
crack of pistol shots. and knew the Of
ficers had chosen death to drowning For
a long time knew nothing except that
] Was being tossed ike q feather on the