The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-29
SPENT WHOLE WEEK IN AN OPEN BOAT Sailors Terrible Experience
 in Cold Climate MUCH CANNIBALISM Selling of Wives Said to Be Common Practice in Hungary-Names for New Torpedo Boat Destroy CTS Are Inspiring
CANNIBALISM
By PAUL LAMBETH.


 | London, September 28-(Special. )-The
 terrible exeprience of a party of ship
 wrecked sailors who spent a week in an open boat in the icy neighborhood of Cape Horn are described in letter which
 has just been received from Port stan ley, in the Falkland Islands. Tho men
 wero accompanied by the captains wife
 and child. and no fewer than six of the original occupants of the boat suc- cumbed to cold and exposure before the exhausted survivors reached the Talk
 land Islands.
 | At the same time comes the news that Captain Thomas, his wife and child. and
 three sailors reached Liverpool on the
 Pacific liner Orepesa. During a storm which broke suddenly,
 the large sailing ship Criccieth Castle, | belonging to Carnaryen, met with disaster off Cape Horn. The rudder post gave
 way, and the rudder damaged the stern post so much that the vessel was filling with water. The captain. Robert Thomas, his wife and little son (aged four years), l the second officer, and thirteen of the crew left the ship in the large life | bat, while the first and third officers and five of the crew left in a smaller boat.
 l The exeprience of the former party dur | ing the first night in the open boat was l terrible the captain describing it as the l worst he had known during the 22 years of his seafaring life. That night. the captain thinks, the second boat must have been swamped, as nothing was seen of | 1t afterwards Captain Thomas was him l self washed out of the lifeboat, but was l saved by his wife, who caught him by
 his clothing, enabling two of the men ,.,,Il h; nl,, if1 nf ha
 men died during the night, and they were followed by three others before the survivors reached land seven days later. | Those who know anything of the Icy re- l zion around Sape Horn fin winter can 1 imagine the sufferings of the unfortunate people who were for seven days in an | open boat which, moreover, was leaking
 badly as the result of striking the ships side while it was being lowered. There | was never less than IS inches of water | in it, although some of the men were con- l tinually baling it out.
 1 On the second day a Finn, a French | cook and Japanese died; on the third
 day German and an Englishman died; and nthe morning of the fourth day 1 those who remained were mortified to l find that during the night another man. l a Welshman, had died. The body was
 put over the side of the boat. | By the fourth day nearly all who re- I
 agonies. Then the water supply gave | out So exhausted were they that no l one seemed to care what happened to | him.
 l large sailing ship was sighted about l two miles off, and the survivors hoisted a | shawl at the end of a spar in an en- | deavor to attract attention, but the sailing
 ship passed out of sight without seeing 1 them.
 All hope of rescue seemed to vanish. l but on the seventh day an outlying island
 in the Falklands was sighted. A ire was | lighted as soon as they landed. and the survivors were able to enjoy a drink of
 melted snow. But the relief afforded by 1 the islet was only shortlived. and the party put out to sea again in the hope of finding inhabited island | This quest was attended by mlsfortunes.
 and the boat was blown out to sea and beyond sight of land. Ultimately Port
 Stanley was reached. Altogether 1T men | have perished.
 | According to the Sierra Leone Consular
 report for 1911, there seems to be no de-
 cline of cannibalism in the Protectorate 1 In addition to the convictions recorded | for cannibal murder, there have also been.
 convictions on the charge of being in possession of the insignia and implements | of cannibal societies. The most active | of these organizations are presumably the
 Human Leopard and Human Alligator
 societies. for, although once-in 19lO-a
 case purporting to relate to the Human | Baboon society was judicially investi- gated, there appears to be hitherto no | conviction for murder on record of pro- l fessed members of that body. Apart from | the murders which take place from time | to time to gratify lust for human fiesh there are indications that in the Imperri and Timdale chiefdoms, which are situat- | ed with the latter district, events such | as the coronation of a chief or the death
 of prominent parsonage are frequently made an occasion for q human sacrifice
 by either the "Berni'' or the "Tomah' | society.
 | It has occasioned surprise that the ap-
 pointment of a new junior counsel to the | treasury, owing to the vacancy caused by | the elevation of Mir. Rowlatt to the bench was not made before the commencement | of the long vacation. The appointment | lies, it is generally understood, between
 MT. Raymond Asquith. the prime minis
 ter's son, and MT. Walter De Sails | Schwabe, who Is in the attorney generals | chambers and is a close relative of Lady
 Lockwood, the widow of Sir Frank Lock-
 wood and great fayorlte among Ameri-
 cans in London.
 | With reference to a case reported from | Bedford during the week, in which it
 was stated that man sold his wife for
 z5 cents, 1t appears that wives are fre-
 quently bought and sold in Hungary,
 and quite recently there a house painter , sold his lawfully welded partner to a
 comrade for the sum of s105.
 | This custom of wife-selling was exceed
 ingly common in England even down to
 100 years ago or less. It was in MaSeh,
 1892 that man sold, at the Market
 Cross, Chapel en le Firth. his wife and
 child and quantity of household furni-
 ture for the sum of $2.75 In the follow
 ing month. butcher. at Hereford sold
 his wife by auction. when the lot fetched
 s6 and a bowl of punch. In March, 1903,
 a man sold his wife in open market at
 Sheffield for S25 In February. 1866. a
 man named John Gorsthorp exposed his
 wife for sale in the market at Hull, when
 she was sold to a natter for the sum of
 s10125
 One of the gallant CO., Sergeant VII
 linn Jones, late of the 4th Queens Own
 Hussars. died at East Dulwich. Joining