The L'Anse sentinel., 1923-08-24
News Of the Day Brings Tales
Equal to Most imaginative
of Fiction Stories.

New York.-Wlthln two days Of one
another, two tales of seafarers daring
have come clicking over the cables,
bringing moments tang of adventure
to newspaper readers.
The stories were those of the de-
tparture of the 45-foot yacht Sowltas-
goth from Hamburg for New York via
Funchal, and of the suffering Of the
crew of the British steamship Tire
vessa-sixteen and eighteen men In
two small boats, voyaging 1000 miles
In the open sea, after their vessel
1oundered In the Indian ocean.
There are daring and hardship of
different sorts In both these stories of
stout hearts. To the town dweller
they bring wonderment and the tribute
of admiration beneath the landsman's
sense Of superiority In his security.
but to the men who know the sea
these are not things smacking Of the
Iphenomenal-they are a part of the
days work, some of the chances taken
by every man jack.
In taverns In many ports you can
hear stories of men In cockleshell
boats which make one wonder what Is
the limit to the prodlgies Of suffering
that can be undergone by the human
animal. Two thousand miles, three
Thousand, four thousand, In boats
laden to the gunwales with men; no
water save rain; Ave days food
stretched out to fifty; heat that mad
dens, nights worse than the glaring
days--and yet victory at last. A thou
sand romances have been written
about such things, but Of them all
there Is not one that approaches the
stark reality.
The Centaur, the Pandora, the
Bounty's boat and the Saglnaw's gig,
the survivors Of the Essex, which was
rammed and sunk by south Pacific
whale In 1S20-these are but chapter
headings in a romance that has no
end.
OF Another Category.
The yacht Sowitasgoth, with her
crew Of three who hope to finish by
mid-August the first voyage Of the
kind from a German port to New
York, Is of another category. Yet
This alone, for all the implication Of
pleasure in the word yacht, has Its
herolsms and daring. Last February
six white men set out from China In
4 twenty-seven ton yacht, the Shang-
hal, bound for Copenhagen on a ten
month voyage Their route alone calls
hp romance-Amoy, Batavia, the Sun
da straits, Rodriguez (where the Ire
ressa's boats landed the other day.,
Maurltius and Madagascar-the names
alone call up the CLINT of sun on break
Ing waves and the sheen of palms.
An 1S-ton yawl, the Mollie Lou,
made the 2,000-mile trip from Homo
lulu to San Francisco in II days
few years ago.
In some Of these voyages cannibal-
ism becomes more than jingers
1est.
The Medusa Is the classic of this
sort, less perhaps from the disaster
itself than from Its celebration In
Gericault's painting, picture consid-
cred excellent in Its day and still as
big drawing card in the Louvre as
''washington Crossing the Delaware"
In galleries nearer the subway.
The Medusa was wrecked Off the
west coast Of Africa on July 2. 1915.
"A raft was thrown together; 149 men
crowded aboard. Twelve days later
1t was picked up In mid-ocean by a
British brig. There were fifteen sur
vivors left. OF the others, some had
drowned.
Five Men In a Blow.
Typhoon, trade. slrocco, monsoon
all the winds figure In the tales of
small boats. In the case Of the Sag
tnaw's gig II was the Kona. bringing
rain. thunder and lightning of the
cliffs of the Hawaiian group. The
Kona ragged when the gigs five men
were worn out. william Halford was
the sole survivor. He died only year
ago.
In 1870 the Saginaw, a small naval
ship, went to Ocean Island, LOO miles
beyond Hawaii, to look for castaways
and verify the isles position. The
Saginaw lift the reef and all hand,
crawled to the sandbank which Is the
island few feet high at most.
A 22-foot whalcboat was fittei up a'
n gig and decked. Lieutenant ]. O
Talbot took command. Halford ant
three others volunteered Storms helt
!. Nd their departure. At last the Sagl
naw's captain called all hands e