The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1914-02-27
THE ONLY
ONE LEFT
By NJ. QUAD
Copyright. 1913, by Associated Lit
erary Press.

crew Of fourteen, all told. At Rio we
loaded green coffee for Australia. We
| got AWAY with a fair wind and every
body In perfect health, and our run to
! the east, until we had sighted Inac-
cessible island and left 1t a hundred
miles astern, was something to boast
| Of Then came a dead fiat calm, which
lasted for eleven days. On the fifth
day of the calm two men were sud
denly stricken with a strange ailment
They were reported sick at o'clock
in the morning; by 2 p. m. both were
dead; at o'clock a third man was
taken down and lived only two hours.
Green coffee will sometimes breed
fever on long, hot voyage, but the
symptoms of these men were so
strange that some other explanation
had to be looked for. No one was at
tackled on the sixth day, but on the
seventh the captain, second mate and
a common sailor all came down at
once The first complaint was dryness
Of the tongue. That was followed In
half an hour by loss Of sight and other
senses and before noon all were dead.
On the night of the seventh day a
sailor who had lain down on the deck
III perfect health and soundly slum.
bered for three hours awoke with q
parched tongue He did not wait to
die as others had done. but CROPPED his
way to the ships side and dropped
from the rail into the sea. He was
the sixth who had died. and the living
were panic stricken.
We had now lost nearly half our
crew, and the ship lay heaving on the
CLASSY sea without sign that the calm
was ever to be broken. On the morn
Ing of the eighth day there was a bet
ter feeling, however. At noon every
man ate a hearty dinner. An hour
later four men were taken down at
symptoms were more violent than in
any of the preceding cases. There
was no burial of the bodies; they were
simply thrown overheard as soon as
life had departed. When this had been
accomplished the mate called the hv-
ing around him and said there was
no longer any ho9e that any man !
would be spared. The captains gig |
could be got at handily, and In case
we wanted to take it and pull away
from the ship he would help to get her
In the water. The two sailors were
eager to get of, but my mind was
quickly made up to remain with Mr..
Merwin.
When the mate and l were left
alone he wrote up his log book and
also prepared two statements, which
he sealed up and cast overheard. That
night when went to sleep the bark
was heaving about on the ground swell
in the same monotonous way, and Mr.
Merwin sat at the table in the cabin
reading book. slept the night
through without a break. and it was
sunrise when ! turned out. looked
into the mates stateroom, but saw
that he had not been to bed. ran on
deck, but he was nowhere to be seen.
| called him and began a search, and
1t was full hour before gave up
and realized that he was not In the
ship. What had happened during the
night | could only surmise. He had
not Weakened me nor left a message.
When | fully realized that was
alone aboard Of the ship was so ter.
rlied that hid away in the cabin for
several hours.
Things were not at all clear to me /
until the morning Of the eleventh day
Of the calm. Then awoke to find my I
self feeling as well as ever in my life
and ran on deck to find signs of change
IN the weather l knew how to make
4 signal Of distress Of the English flag.
and. although there was no wind, ran /,
he bunting aloft.
1t was 3 o'clock in the afternoon be-
ore the first catspaws began playing G
'ver the CLASSY surface OF the sea, but {
n the course of half an hour a steady t
'reeze set In from the north, and the I
ark went drifting away before it.
During the next Eve days and nights \
he breeze blew from every point Of q
he compass except the east. but did !.
lot rise to gale nor create q heavy
en-. | had little to do except to cook :
ny meals and go aloft to look for sails, "
mt | made as much work for myself I
$ could and did not permit my mind k
dwell on the present or future. On v
he seventh or eighth day of my lone V
hess at l o'clock in the afternoon and
'hile the bark was drifting to the east u
nder a light breeze went aloft and D
lade out sail to the north, a second 7
the south and a third to the west y
he first two were too far away to =
ope for assistance. The third was .
oming up and must pass me close. c.
he was but a speck on the horizon II
hen | made her out. but two hours b
tier had her in plain sight, and at 5 n
clock she was up with me. She prov W
to be the ship Amazon Of Liverpool, n
ound for the Cape with soldiers and L:
migrants. and crew was put aboard 4
the derelict. and she headed for :,
lat port In company. Ship and cargo =, -
ere worth big sum Of money, but / !;
as not entitled to a dollar Of salvage. a,
here were those who even said l 81
light to be thankful over my escape oil