The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-20
AYEPORPOlSE AND DRANK RAIN
SKIMPED ON TIE COSTA, 81 DAYS
FROM BRAZIL.

It Was son-or.a-sca-C0ek Cold ON the way
Up, and That's All the English There 10
Aboard Except tho ~Linguist's, VINO
Caught the Porpelse and Says It's Good.
guese barkentine, the j. Soares Costa,
Capt. Manuel Jesus Orojo. whose crew
say that until yesterday they had eaten
nothing for a week put porpo ise and had
had for drinking water only such rain Al
they had managed to catch in a sail i've
days age.
The Costa came TO anchor yesterday
noon after a voyage from Santos that had
lasted eighty -one days. At Santos some
of the crew deserted and the captain could
get no cargo. There were left besides the
captain and his one mate only the cook
and four boys. Two abs bodied seamsn
were hired, and with the nine the Costa
started.
There wasn't very much about the vessel
the boys could do and so they were put
at the wheel, two at a time in moderate
weather and the four when the gales ran
high.
In ballast the SI5 ton craft stands high
out Of the water and it was hard to keep
her on her course. With the vino abeam
she drifted to leeward. Then nasty weather
set in and for days she ran before the wind
with only her headsails set.
Two weeks ago the barkentine was soms-
where of the coast OF Virginia, at least
that was what the only member of the crew,
one Of the seamen, who could speak Eng
lish thinks. The captain idn { know, the
sailor said. II got to be cloudy. There
was no chance TO get a sight and the Costa
was being worked to port on dead reckoning.
But it was pretty bad dead reckoning. If
the only one who could speak English is
to be believed.
I'D like TO take a chart and show you
how We got here, +" said he. First il was
a slant of TO the eastward. then 10 the
southwark, all the time with the lookout
instructed 10 keep his eyes peeled for land.
So we went for we weeks, always looking
for land and not seeing any nor seeing
any other vessels that could tell us where
we might find it. Rain we had, and fog
and snow and clouds, but no sun and no
idea where we were. And 80 we sailed.
heading all ways in a day. hoping 70 get TO
port, yet fearing that We never would
A week ago the food got low There
were a few biscuit left, but no pork or other
Ilcdls VIII a lhilh llht VIC 'dNkuI ~ lt"
msckerel after the pork went, but they
got scarce. Five days ago the cook said
there was nothing at all left.
Along in the afternoon | was on the
bow when l happened TO look into the water
and there was a ~porpoise.
There's our meat. | said tn myself.
There was a harpoon standing in the fore
castle and | got il. Then | let myself down
over the bows and crawled out on the bob
stay, holding OF 10 the dolphin striker when
i got in position 10 throw the harpOon
There was only one poTpoise and | was
afraid that he was going 10 get frightened
away. But ! got right over him and let
him have the iron. IL hit him just abIltt
the head. When he started of he almost
carried me of the bobstay. but ! managed
To get a turn about the dolphin striker and
held on 10 him.
we rugged mp a couple of sings and |
called all hands to hoist him. You ought
TO have seen the look on the cooks face.
He didn't want TO cook porpoise. hungry as
he and all the rest Of us were, but he came
around after | had skinned the animal AND
helped him cut 1t up.
Eat il all? Heavens, no! There is
still a cask full Of Il in the galley. But
it is good eating. Tastes very much like
pork and il a lot better han sta rvation."
While the A. B. was telling his story
in the cabin-it's a free and easy life they
live aboard Portuguese vessels, where sailors
may go in the sacred precincts Of the cabin
ana Ial SEA- tHleS-Ine maze SIOOO ATOulQ
and smiled in Portuguese and the skipper
snored in Portuguese in his bunk.
One other of the crew stood near-the
cook who had cooked the porpoise-and
whenever he heard a familiar word spoken
by one Of the reporters who knew a little
San Francisco Spanish he smiled and shiv-
cred and said it was cold. Very cold-son
Of a sea cook cold"
That was all the English any Of the crew
except the one A. b.. knew, Son Of a sea
cook cold" and when they said it they
smiled and shivPred and said il over. -Son
OF a sea cook Is said To he the first English
a foreign seafaring man learns, and he
likes the world TO know that he knows that
much English.
When one looks at the dingy little bar
kentine one wonders how she ever got to
port at all. She was built twenty-five years
ago, and time and the sea have not been
kin TO her. Aft there is a little cuddy of a
cabin where the captain and the mate live,
and where the rats play all day n Not
little rats-bIg ones.
so very riany Of them" said the A. B.,
translatinR for the mate. And the mate
had caught fifty of them one day by put
ting "A piece of pork in the sail locker that
opens into the cuddy of a cabin and pulling
to the sail locker door when the rats had
gone in.
If it's bad in the cabin, it's worse in. the
foreoastle. There isn't a stove on the Costa
except the one in the galley. for Portuguese
owners do not allow fOT countries colder
than their own. Last night the cold winds
blow over the bay, and the crew of the
Costa were huddled together 80 that the
heat of their bodies might help to keep them
warm. The oldest Of the boys was lying in
his dirty bunk suffering from some illness,
no ono knew what.
81 hope we GO. q cargo soon and go back
20 Portugal" said the A.. b.. who spoke
English.