The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-05-18
SNATCHEO FROM
JAWS or DEATH
Four Sailors Picked up After
Two Weeks of Terror
in Open
Boat.
LEFT BURNING SHIP
Eleven Men Had Died and Were Cast
Overheard During the
Days of starva-
tion.
EFT BURNING SHE

!
sea. four survivors Of crew of fifteen
who escaped a fiery fate when the
freight steamer Columbian burned,
May 8, arrived here today on the U.
s. revenue cutter Seneca, which pick
ed them up after eleven Of their num-
ber had starved. Officer Robert
There, Sailors Oscar kendall and Peter
Belanger and Fireman Mitchell Lud-
wigsen were the quartette who ar
rived today aboard The Seneca. Strip
ped of their clothing by their mates,
the bodies of the eleven other sailors,
one by one were consigned to the
pitiless sea.
| Word by word, after their rescue,
the four starving men told in gasps, of
their awful experience. Water and
biscuits gone, they said, the cast
aways existed on scraps of hardtack,
catching in tarpaulines and Jackets
OF their dead fellows. the rain which
fell from the limitless sky, beating
from the great waste Of water on
which their boat floated. The Colum-
bia burned at sea $50 miles OF Sable
Island, and .he crew left the flaming
vessels side. In the wallow OF the
waves. they separated. Two days
later. two of the boats, containing
! 1twenty-seven Of the crew, were picked
| up by the liners Franconia and Man
haitian. The third, that which the
Seneca rescued, was given up as los..
The revenue cutter was on duty as
an ice patrol boat, scanning the sea
for ice bergs VIXEN on Sunday morn
ing the lookout shouted boat ahead
on the starboard bow" In an instant
Captain Johnston ordered full steam
ahead and eager eyes watched the IL
tie derelict as the cutters prov
speared through the waves. Not a
life was to be seen from the deck Of
the ship. But to make sure, the cap
tain ordered the gig overheard for
closer examination.
When their boat hooks gripped
the gunwale of the drifting life boat,
four men, huddled together in the
bottom, were found. All were in a
state of absolute collapse. They could
not speak. Their lack-lustre eyes and
hollow cheeks plainly told their story
of starvation. The pile OF clothing on
which they crouched was the first in
dication that others who shared their
fate had gone to the bottom Of the
sea. Spoonfuls Of brandy and sips Of
water were given the rescued four i'm
medfately. In sings the men we're
hoisted up the cutters side. The
ships physician administered to them,
p1o M
The cutters nose was turned toward
Halifax and all speed was made for
this port.
After several hours rest, the rescu-
ed men told briefly the story Of their
ordeal. Weakly they gasped out how,
when the Columbian burned, their
boat was the third to leave her side.
Pounding in heavy sea during the
night. they said. the fifteen men by
turns held her head up to the waves.
When morning dawned they were
alone upon the heaving sea.
Ali that day and the next they en-
dured and hoped for succor. Within
.he first forty-eight hours three steam
ers went by. with each sight of a
vessel their hopes rose and fell again
into dull despair as liner after liner
vanished hull down on the horizon.
For seven days the fifteen endured,
the stronger aiding their weaker fell
lows There was little food. Water
was short but they por.ioned out
what they had, fairly, and kept up
their hearts. On the seventh day
Oiler George Hull passed away with a
groan That was on May TO- This
was the first death Hulls body was
and slid into the sea, and
his clothing, still warm from the
lifeless body, was used to aid in keep
ing heat in the frames Of those who
still lived
Soon the food was all gone. There
was no more water. Rain, however, |
prolonged the lives of the tortured
men. but one after another they
succumbed and their bodies like that (;
Of Hull we're cas-. into the waves.
The last to go was Peter Elried. !