Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-25
MOTHER BROWNS
FOUR CHILDREN
WOMAN SHlPWRECKED FEARS
CANNlBAL PRACTICES
PARENT FOLLOWS OFFSPRING TO
WATERY GRAVE
Five Survivors of Disaster on Ocean
Reach Victoria and Tell Heartrend-
ing Tales of Hardships
Encountered
TBy Associated Press.l

VICTORIA. Is. <, Aug. 24.-Few
more tragic tales of the sea are on
record than that brought today by the
steamer Makura. from Australia, of the
wreck of the Norwegian bark Errol
which struck Middleton reef June Is,
and the sufferings and tragedies of the
survivors briefly reported by cable.
Five remained of twenty-five men
when the Tofu took them of, so elna-
C1ated fro mthirst and starvation they
had TO be carried.
The Nakura brought detailed stories
of their vain struggle to find water on
the reef. their unsuccessful search lot
a cache OF provisions ana a NE poat
maintained there previous TO lSSZ, ana
which the sailing directions stated still
existed, of their final abandonment OF
hope and subsequent delirlum.
CAPTAIN Anderson and the second
mate were drowned while building a
raft. Anderson's wife and children
looked on, wringing their hands, ana
finally after others had succumbed ana
the remainder were weak from starVa-
ton. the captains wife drowned het
four children under the impression that
the five survivors were planning TO re-
sort to cannibalism, and she followed
the children into the waves.
The five survivors were too far gone
to talk much of their sufferlngs. Pat
rick Palmer an American, who joined
the ship at Coquimbo, said:
Sees Husband Drown
Five of us got away on raft. We
went all over the reef in search OF
water. but found none and one Of the
partv died on the reef. We had some
difficulty in building the raft and the
captain and second mate both got
drowned. The captains wife stood
within a few feet of him watching him
and she saw him drown as she stood
there wringing her hands; she had her
four children, from n baby one year
old to the eight-year-old girl standing
beside her.
I'VE thought we would be able to
find water on the reef and save the
lives uf those we had left on the
wreck, but those sailing directions lie.
They said there was water there, Ire
boat and food, and there was no food
and no life boat. Ole, he died; he fell
down on the reef and dropped his head
on his chest. He was lucky. There was
another wreck on the reef and we
thought il was a store snip. we
boarded it. but found nothing to eat.
It was musty. old and all It held was
bottle with about two gillS OF water
that must have been there for years by
the horrible taste of il. l and the car
peuter drank it.
I'VE afterwards found some more
water and although 1t was bad, we
drank it, We then decided to build d
punt from the wreckage and while we
were working at this we lived on shell
fish"
Another survivor took up the story.
He said that when the sufferers were
sitting on the sand, the captains wife
thought they were considering can
nibalism and she asked them not to
eat her children. Her mind had gone.
Suddenly she ran into the sea and
drowned her four children, following
them into the sea. When relief finally
came there We're but five, four men and
a boy. And these were so exhausted
that three had to be carried by the
rescuers.
The steamer Tofu was bound from
the islands to Sydney when two wrecks
were seen at Middleton reef, where
formerly there had been but one. The
steamer bore in and sent boats ashore.
One of the wrecks was near the punt
built by the survivors, who hysterically
seized the jugs of weakened brandy
and beef tea passed to them.