The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-03-27

stream
Moore had thrown off entirely the de
liTium from which he was suffering when
picked up Saturday by the tanker, VIII
liam Green. but the attending physi-
clans said there was grave danger of his
developing pneumonia.
While the pilot. still shaken with hOr-
ror of his experience. told his story,
+ crews of sfaplanes and naval craft were
returning from a fruitless all-day search
for the bodies of Mr.. and Mrs. August
| Butte and Mr. and Mrs Lawrence L.
Smith of Kansas City, and Mrs j. 5.
| Dickson of Memphis, who had occupied
| the passenger pit of the Miss Miami
when she took off Wednesday morning
for a flight to the island of Bimini.
J I'VE left Manu. said Moore, Eat
| l:04 o clock last Wednesday morning
l IN the face of a stiff northeasterly wind.
!, At Hal, about three minutes out of
Bimini, something broke off the pro
peIleT. | automatically looked tor a
ship or shoal, to land by. / saw fish
! ing smack and vOlplaned down to the
water about mile away in its course.
! Il asked the passengers not to be
afraid. We were III no immediate dan
/ ger and the craft was drawing near. The
/ winds. however. were rising. and before
/ long the hull of the boat sprung leak.
! The nose of the plane began rising. Then
a big wave came along and lifted us.
The plane turned over and We were all
| thrown into the sea.
Mrs. Butte came to the surface first, ,
then Mr.. Smith and Mrs. Smith OF
the three none could swim. / succeeded
in getting them to the overturned plane.
Mrs Dickson and Mr.. Butte had not APP
neared on the surface Mrs. Butte made
this discovery.
=.
- told her he would be all right in a
few miutes and dived into the waters
but | could not locate either he or Mrs.
Dickson. Mrs. Butte began to weep. |
dived into the water and obtained cUsh-
ions from the plane to use for life
preservers. As | returned to them, 1
saw the body of Butte floating. l
stepped directly in front of Mrs. Butte
and obstructed her view. As the body
assed me / noted a wound on his fore
Lead. He must have been killed before
he struck the water when the plane
overturned.
..Within the next 30 minutes the
genes changed twice On the horizon we
sighted the fishing boat. We began TO
laugh and contemplated being picked up
] was confident we would be saved. In
fact felt like whistling. | believe [
did. 1t kept UP my morale.
course
II can't understand in God 5 world
Why lac did ont keep on toward us. lie
knew 7 was in that locality somewhere.
for he had seen me come down / could
see his name on the boat, less than half
d mile away as he went ON.
The winds rose during the night and
the women grew weaker. At least =
tines they were swept over. but | swan
cut and got them and brought them
lack each time.
The next day our hopes rose as we
saw other boats pass, but none came
within less than mile and a half of Us.
/ tried to keep up the morale of the
others by telling them they were sol
Giers. 1t helped marvelously. but one of
the women, Mrs. Smith, became utterly
detected.
1--WE weathered the storm of Wednes-'
day night after a terrible experience, I
and Mrs Butte died Thursday. | saw
MIR. and Mrs. Smith cIasped i'm each
others arms and one of them suggested
that they close their eyes and jump oyer
board. But they didn t, and Mrs. !
Smith died in her husband : arms. We
released the bodies of the two women
and they floated away. 9
" Thursday "a dusk approached Smith
grew delrious and | strapped him on.
At times he appeared rational and asked
me what chance | thought we had of be
ing rescued. | told him | thought we
would vet be saved. and he said:
u don't see how we can hold out
much longer Don t you think l had a
brave wife, | assured him that | had
never seen a more courageous woman.
. All right, Bob he answered,
promise me that if you return you viii
tell her sons how brave their mother
was. Tell them the facts and tell them
the truth about me. You will know as
no other how [ did. Tell them for me,
boy
He removed three dollar bills from
his pocket and asked me to give one to !
each of his three boys with his dying
message
- pushed his body into the sea and
all alone kept up my courage as best Il
could. The sun : heat had blistered me
and the thirst was maddening | chewed
the ends of my fingers until blood came
to appease my thirst. saw boats pass
and waved to them but none saw me.
As dusk approached Friday night I be
gan to believe that it was all up tied
a rope to my neck. but | was so weak
that it seemed there WASH much use.
guess | was unconscious when the boat
came after me for 1 don t remember
much more.