Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-01-17
STARVATION DIETS.
Boiled Rope, Seaweed, Raw Boots and
Barnacles Have Saved Lives.

The hardest fare that six strong men
and a hoy OF 10 ever kept alive on was
! the daily mem OF the NindOyers sur
i viyors, VINO were cast up on the Irish
coast near kiisegg 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 il made them i'll, they kept alive
on it and did not waste away very much.
The WindoYer was 4 bark carrying
! salt between Spain and the states, with
an English crew, and she was dlsmasted
and abandoned about a thousand miles
out on the Atlantic. Three Of the crew
We're killed by falling masts, and two
others were washed overbOard: but the
other seven took to the whaleboat and
set ont for Britain Being in too much
| of 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 in four
| days, but had water enough for month,
and. after starving two days more. they
| tried boiling lengths of tarred hemp rope
into a pulp and swallowing it. They had
a key Of paratfine wax, and, though II
made them very i'll at first, they eventual
~ c0utriyed to live on the boiled hemp,
the tar, boiled to a jelly, adding to the
nourishment of the rope. They landed
in comparatively good health.
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, 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 gulls. which they could not
catch, and nothing to make a fire with
as n distress signal. There are not even
any shellfish as there is no beach, and
the pair had to subSst 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 res
cued. When taken off they were Il good
deal emaciated. but no i'll effects resulted
The same thing happened off the same
coast FIVE years ago, when four fisher
women were imprisoned on an Inlet by
the loss of their boat. They lived on
'kelpie" grass for six days.
4 diet of boots is one of the cOmmOnest
of last resource foods, and though it is
hard for q well fed person to imagine
that anyone could mastic&te and digest
shoe leather, a pair of long SnabootS will
keep a man alive for a fortnight, if he
has a little water. Capt. Mab0ly of the
foundered steamer Gwallor and his sec
Ond officer created a record last year by
living for seventeen days on boot leather
and a pint of water Il day each.
OF course, no teeth can tear coWhide
boots: they have to be cut up and shred
ded with Il knife. and the shredS chewed
and swallowed. Boiling. even when pos
sible does not good mt all. but takes from
the boots what nOurishment they contain.
\ few ounces of leather. being so hard
to digest. stays the stomach for fifteen
or twenty hours.
The best known and most useful of
starvation diets for wrecked or castaway
people, however, is that of hArnacles.
and if anything of the kind happens to
you they will probably be your staple
food Barnacles are long fought. half
shellfsh, half vegetable creatures. that
grow on the undersideS of vessels. Three,
Englishmen and crew of Lascars who
had been forced to abandon the sailing
vessel North Star Il few months ago kept
themselves going for over Il week on
barnacles. and only two of the crew died.
The worst of them is that they give one
internal cramps and cahsc an insuffer-
able thirst; but they do nourish the
frame. You have to reach under the YES
sells side and pull them off. taking care
not to leave the best half of them stick
ing TO the planks. Only Il starving per-
son could possibly eat them. Many a
castaway crow, however. has found them
better than nothing.