Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-16
IN A DUGOUT WITHOUT FOOD
Subsists by Chewing the Raw Skin
Of Turtles.
HURRICANE RUINS PROPERTY
Says the Investment of Every
Banana Planter in Nicaragua
Is Wiped Out.

&&1|" L Jim, 4NoSCHUCT lO.-Dy via WI
face and wasted limbs Frederick Ball. a
young Englishman. who reached New
York from Nicaragua on. the steamer
Admiral Schley today. showed the strain
Of a FIVE days battle against wind and
current in an Indian dugout. For two
days of that time he did not dare sleep,
but fought with every faculty against
| the steady current that threatened to
sweep him out to sea. BY that time
his cargo of raw fruit, which he had
depended on as rations to last him until
he could reach a steamship port. had
been spoiled by the sea water he had
shipped, and his canteen Of water was
spilled. For forty-eight hours he mois-
tened his cracking lips and appeased his
collapsing stomach by chewing on the
raw skin OF turtles. He was near to ex-
haustion when he finally reached Bocas
Del Toro. where he found the Admiral
Schley ready to SAIL
And then he had to consider that in
the hurricane that swept Nicaragua Oc-
tober % he had lost his all. For two
years he had been at work on the head
waters Of the Kurinwis river. where
he had bought a tract Of land for a
banana plantation. The trees would have
Deen ready to bear at the next crop
time but for this falls storm. His very
considerable investment was wiped out,
and he will sail for England Wednesday
OF this week to take this news to his
wife and children. who have been wait
ing him there. He is not the only loser,
however. Every banana planter in Mic
aragua Is also ruined.
There will not be q banana sent to
market from Nicaragua for the next year
Or eighteen months" he said.
Starts to Make Fortune.
Mr.. Ball is only twenty-seven years
Old He went to Nicaragua two years
| ago to make his fortune. He is a Lon
doner by birth and a graduate Of West
minister College.
The plantation he picked out on the
kurinwis river was twenty-eight miles
from the nearest settlement, the hamlet
Of Great River. and was in the heart OF
the NicaraRuan wilderness. He had met
with SUCCESS in making his plantation and
was ready to reap the reward of his eff
forts when the great storm of October 25
struck Nicaragua. The wind blew for
| twenty-four hours. and when it subsided
was followed by q tidal wave. Between
the wind and the water Nicaragua was
almost wiped of the earth.
The storm cut swath 100 miles wide
to the Atlantic coast. The territory be-
from Managua to Leon, on the Pacific
was utterly destroyed. AS q sample OF
the winds work Mr. Ball passed through
the hamlet OF Prince of Pulca on his way
to the coast. This town had contained
900 houses.
Today there is only one standing. Sim
liar destruction is reported from the whole
Of the district. In spite OF this. only
two deaths had been heard Of by Mr.. Ball
when he left. The Nicaraguans, warned
| by previous experience. burrowed into the
ground when they saw the tornado COM
Ing. Most Of them have storm cellars.
and they went In and stayed.
Make Start for Home.
When the wind had passed. Ball was
in possession Of three shirts. q little
money and the suit Of clothes he wore.
He started for home. The nearest steam
ship port was Bocas Del Toro. That was
26O miles down the coast, and only to be
| reached by padding in a crank Indian
dugout. 1t was equipped with a little leg
o'-mutton sail, but he had to depend
most of the time on his paddles. He
worked constantly For the first three
days Of the journey he managed to snatch
q little sleep. During the last forty Eight
hours he encountered storms and adverse
currents, and passed continually through
| the wreckage OF the storm. swept out to
sea by the tidal wave.
Houses, schooners. great trees, even bits
| Of earthly bank buoyed up by the tree
roots they contained, and as much as
four feet thick. were carried along in in
congruous companionship. Now and then
the bodies of domestic animals were seen
amid the waves. He did not dare nod
even for a moment. lest collision with
these floating objects wreck his frail
craft. For almost a day a current swept
directly out to sea. This was after his
| ration Of fruit had rotted and his can OF
! water had been spilled. He padded like
mad, for he knew that life depended on it.
He caught a turtle. stripped some of the
skin from its body, chewed 1t for the
| sake Of the moisture and the nourishment
| to be gained. Otherwise he must have
succumbed. To show the violence of the
wind, many of the cocoanuts he found
floating in the water had been split in two.