Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-04-21
Thousand Miles IN Dory
to Rescue Wrecked Grew
Correspondence of The Star.

MELBOURNE, March 1, 1897.
the South Indian ocean on a barren
/ and desolate island. thousands of miles
from the active world and far from the
course of ships, eleven men, shipwrecked
there four months ago. are supposed to be
still alive and awaiting rescue, which, I'M
known to them, is now at hand.
Determined to risk everything to save
themselves and send rescue to their COM
rades who had no other hope of escape from
a living DEATH the captain and two of his
crew set out in small dory on 4. 600 mile
voyage to Australia. The odds against
them were overwhelming, but fortune
favored the three brave men. After cover
ing thousand miles in their tiny craft
they were picked up nearly dead from eX-
posture and exhaustion by a Dutch sailing
vessel and brought to this. port.
Clark Russell's novels contain no more
thrilling tale of, the sea than that told by
Capt Rec. He is young and sturdiy built
Norwegian. with fair, curly locks and fea-
lures which at once disclose his nationality
Since childhood he has been at sea. with
the exception of six months. when. strange
to say. he was newspaper artist in Phila-
delphia. And now, at the early age OF
twenty-five, he is the captain of a ship
wrecked crew, after crowding into the last
ten weeks more stirring incidents than usu-
ally fall to the lot of sailor in a lifetime.
His story runs like this. The Norwegian
bark Catherine, under his command. was
a sealing expedition in antarctic regions.
On the 1st of December last the vessel
lay at anchor in American bay, Possession
Island. This is one of the barren and rocky
members of the Crozet group way to the
south of the Indian ocean, within the zone
of floating Ice from the polar region. While
the bay offered good shelter from wester-
ly winds, it was open to the east, and when
a gale sprung up from that quarter with
out warning the small ship was al Its
mercy. The anchors dragged and, the ship
was soon thrown against an uncharted
rock. The crew had barely taken to the
boats when a monstrous dashed their
abandoned vessel to pieces. Their own
boats came within an ace of being
swamped, but as they neared the beach a
huge wave landed them high and dry on the
island There they watched their broken
vessel, with all their provisions, toss about
in the angry waters.
The raging storm. as If to tantalize It's
Victims threw small pieces of the wreck
age on to the shore. Plunging into the
surf, the men secured what large pieces
they could and later built a crude hut A
search of the island disclosed store of
provisions which had been left there by |
BRUSH warshfp twenty-seven years before |
Inc TINS of preserved meat were a mass of
rust. the biscuits had turned green and |
the four was In rotten state. But des- |
perate hunger did not despise these things |
They might well die of poisoning a. |
starvation. The moldy -four was made into |
pancakes. and mixed with penguin SOUP |
Seals as We'll as penguins were found to be |
plenty but as steady diet only famished |
men would adopt IT..
4
From the first the captain had held that |
their only hope of ever being delivered from |
this terrible plight was for some of the |
party to set out in boat on the 4OOO-mlie |
voyage to Australia. and if saved, send |
some ship to rescue those left behind The |
crew regarded the scheme as a crazy one
There wasn't one chance in a hundred. they
said, of the little boat surviving such an |
ocean Journey to say nothing of the men |
hvlhg TO navigate it so far. But as day
after day passed without a sail being |
sighted they gradually came round TO the |
captains view that there was no other
nope of escape for them. 1t was agreed |
that two of the men who like him were un- |
married should accompany him on the |
desperate venture.
With little hope of our success" said |
capt Rec, the others finally fell to and |
saved from the wreck were an ak, ham |
mer and pair of tongs. With these a |
crude rudder was made and fitted to the |
tWenty-foot dory. We provisoned the little |
craft with seal meat and penguins for |
forty-fve days.
On New Year day, as nearly as we had |
counted the dreary days, our boat was
launched When good-byes had been said |
and every one felt that it was goodbye
forever-we pushed off to the northeast
At once we saw the danger of our under
taking For nine days the weather was
terrible, and at times We hardly knew
whether we were inside or outside the
boat, as the seas flew over us and kept us
drenched to the skin, and the cold was in
tense After months battle, during which
We had often surrendered ourselves to fate
and fallen to the bottom of our tossing
boat in utter exhaustion and despair, we
sighted a sail. We rallied what little
strength We had, knowing that our rescue
must be at hand or would never come. for
we were nearly dead. We had already COW
cred thousand miles For two hours we
were unnoticed, and as the vessel kept on
her course it seemed to that we were
doomed. Then the shp-t was the Dutch
bark De Ruyter-tacked and headed our
way. They had seen us and We were saved.
You cannot imagine what it meant to us
after the stubborn struggle had made |
for life and the rescue we planned for the |
men whom we had left behind on the lone
ly island We were taken aboard, and after
a time were brought back to life from our
half frozen and exhausted state sufficiently
to tell story.
what would I not give at this moment"
added the captain, Ito know that those |
eleven poor fellows could learn that we
have been picked up and are back in Mel
bourne and that a vessel will be sent to
rescue them They have plenty of fresh
water in the creeks the island, and of
course they can live on seal and penguin
for some time But the rude hut which
we built there cannot afford much comfort