The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1908-05-22

LIE crown 1911 luIO oil dWCu uuoA
as the litter passed to the special
train which was to convey this most
important witness to a hospital. Next
in public interest were the officers
and men of the Esperanto, who, feel
ing themselves in the limelight, be-
came each the center of great crowds,
to whom they recounted as best they
could the story of how the man was
found.
The exact details of this as given by
the captain Of the Esperanto to the
ministers of the cabinet who were
summoned threw meager light upon
the case. The Esperanto had gone out
of her usual course, following the Gulf
stream to the northward, until warned
by an American cruiser to take a more
easterly tack. She had done so, thus
bringing her into a less ~frequented
path of travel.
At ten o'clock in the morning, five
days previous to her reporting at
Fastnet, the man on the lookout had
sighted an object which drew his at
tention, which at first he believed to
be a mere piece of untenanted wreck
age tossing on the swell. He had noti-
fed the captain, who altered the ships
course and bore down upon it, only
to learn that it was a life raft on
which was a man. A boat was low
cred, and it was found that the mani
mate form vas that of a British sailor,
on whose cap, which had been thrust
beneath a cleat of the raft, were the
words III. M. s. Dreadnought." The
man evidently had dashed himself Sc
curely before his strength had failed,
knowing how small were his chances
for rescue, and how certain his COM
ing weakness. When picked up by the
Esperanto he was thought to be dead;
but being taken aboard he showed
some signs of life, and after hours of
work recovered sufficiently to give
some slight hope of survival.
So terrible had been his %sufferings
from privation that his mind seemed
unhinged, and they had been unable
to gather any information from him
save that of some overwhelming dis
aster.' He was nov in the throes of
brain fever, and talked only the speech
of the delirious. His fragmentary
mumblings were beyond all under
standing; his mind seemed to be a
confused tumble of Authorizations, in
which he cried for water and made
absurd comments on what was passing
in his dreams. There were strangely
interviewer babblings Of submarine
boats, e serpents and unheard OF
monsters which harried the ship and
sent her to her doom. Pitiful excla.
.terjections of overwhelming dread,
and brief snatches of prayer came
from his lips throughout all the days
In which they had attended him. The
strangest part in all the incident of
picking up the castaway was that
the captain of the Esperanto, seek
ing other survivors, had cruised for
hours in the vicinity; but had found
no other sign of wreckage or of hui
manity. He had coursed to the north
ward, thinking it possible that the
trend of. the wind had driven this
lone mariner away from the cen Of
catastrophe; but the ocean itself was
a blank. The crest Of no wave carried
even a piece of fotsam, nor was
there anywhere a clew to the mystery.
The rocking of the foundations of
the world could have created no more
suspense or terror than did the fear
which threatened the downfall of gov
ernments and the eradication of boun-
Diary lines. England suffered the woes
of the bereaved in the certainty that
thousands of men who were fathers.
brothers, husbands or friends had
been annihilated by this terrible re-
public across the sea. From every
throat came a despairing cry for re.
taliation; but England, rich, mighty
and powerful, felt herself without
e of appeasing it. It was we'll
enough to talk of revenge when the
means were at hand; but the country
In the face Of this dread enemy was
helpless, and so 1t was that the bit.
terness of defeat gave way to the
hopelessness of terror when a calmer
and more judicial spirit prevailed. II
was beginning to be comprehended to
the full that not only Great Britain in
all her strength, but the combined
forces of the world, would stand nc
chance of conducting even q defensive
war against the United States-noW
become a swordfsh ravaging and de
populating the seas.
In the meantime, while all this con
sternation prevailed and the heads Of
nations, fearful and trembling, specu
lated Al to the outcome, the sailo,
from the Dreadnought was being
watched and cared for by the most
distinguished savants and specialists
of the old world. There lowered owe,
his bedside through every minute o1
the day men dispatched by every
European power, who we're doing all
that science might suggest to bring
this lone and stricken mariner back
to sanity and let him give tongue t.
what he knew Of this scourge of the
waters. Hourly bulletins of his con
dition were posted on street corners
and round these stood men and won
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