The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1907-05-21
IN MIDOCEAN
Seven Men Live Six Days on a
Few Biscuits and Water.
FLUNG FROM GALE TO GALE

Dismantled Schooner's Crew Were Dy
ing of Hunger and Thirst When Pick-
ed Up-Castaways Taken to France
Return to America.
New York, May 81. = Flung from
gale to gale, the schooner Everett Web
ster of Philadelphia was jammed head
down into the Atlantic off Hatteras,
and for six days her captain and six
men lived on a few sea biscuit and
gallon of water, with the result that
when they were rescued by the French
bark Quevilly's crew all the sailors
were delirious and the skipper was
close to death. That happened in last
months first half, yet when Captain
Clarendon Maxwell of the Webster
and his men arrived here in the steam
ship Philadelphia after a sojourn in
France and England they had not
shaken off the horror of their expert
ence Nor did it help them to do so
when they learned their abandoned
schooner, which they thought they had
burned well enough to insure her sink
ing, still was plunging about in the
trade lane, constant menace to ships
big and little Captain Maxwell said
he set fire to the Webster before leav-
ing her, and that was attested by liners
that sighted her when she was ablaze.
One element must have snatched her
from the other, for early this month
she was sighted, still afioat and no
longer burning
A Few Biscuits.
The Webster ran into a heavy gale
off the dangerous cape on April 3 when
homeward bound from Wilmington,
N G. She sprang a leak forward and
filed quickly. but vigorous pumping
restored her buoyancy. Another gale
| throttled her on the 9th, and soon the
pumps were powerless. Her bows
went under water and stayed there
| Captain and crew took refuge in the
stern and resigned themselves to drift
| ing until picked up. All they could
save from the shin's stores amounted to
keg of biscuit and that lone gallon of
water The skipper was allotting ra-
tons to his men when a giant wave
swept the key overheard. About a
dozen biscuits rolled out of the keg.
and the men hurled themselves on
them. Those biscuits constituted their
diet through the next six days.
Every man, including Maxwell, was
| in shape bad enough to call for hospital
care. The hands of each were swollen
| from long work on the pumps and
cracked from the salt of the sea. Each
! was covered with bruises and had sew
eral severe wounds from the fights
| with the gales. All were starving by
the second day of their long drift. Max
wells authority was tested to the ut
most to save few of the biscuits from
| immediate consumption. Several of the
men were ready to fight like wolves for
the last crumb. There was no mutiny
against the captains rigor, for he stay
| ed awake most of the time, straning
for sight of ship by day or lights by
night 1t was better to watch than
sleep anyhow, for wave after wave
swept the little clump of crouching
men, and slumber might mean death.
Most of the time the weather was win
try, and at all times the water was bit
ter cold
Seamen DeIirious.
Harry Leroy, Edward Smith, ]. w.
Peters. Louis r. Card, i. Wyham and
Adolph Shubert were raving when on
April ID Maxwell sighted the Quevllly,
The Webster's skipper steadied him
self against the sternpost with one
hand and with the other waved his
coat frantlcally until convinced he was
seen from the bark. 1t took the last
of his strength, for he sank senseless
to his slanting deck as the Frenchman
put about and lowered a boat Getting
the delirious seamen off the Webster
was no light task, for heavy sea was
running. The last thing Maxwell did
aboard his schooner was to wisp news
papers into torch and fire her in sew
eral places,
The United States consul in Rouer
sent the shipwrecked men from thai
city to Southampton, whence they
came back to their own land. Captain