San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-04-19
SHUT OFF BY
|CE,|SLANDERS
/ ARE STARVING
Ten Men and a Woman
Are Marooned With
out Food.
AIRPLANE TO RESCUE
Cold and Exhausted, Three
Struggle Through
Ice for Help.
AIRPLANE TO RESCUE
By the Associated Press.

Northport, Mich, April 19.-Cold,
:, exhausted and half starved. three
men who, for As hours, battered their
way through slush ice and open water,
reached the mainland here yesterday
bearing news that ten others-nine
men and a woman-are slowly
starving on Fox Island, eighteen miles
from here in Lake Michigan.
As a result of their story-a story
of a battle against great odds in
which human lives were constantly
at the mercy of sweeping gales and
shifting ice packs-two army airplanes
left Selfridge Field, Mt. Clemens, to-
day, to carry food to the marooned
party on Fox Island.
The party went to the island last
fall to cut timber, carrying provisions
sufficient for several months. The
prolonged winter, however, did not en-
ter into their calculations. Three
weeks ago all food supplies, excepting
some frozen potatoes, was gone.
With death from starvation facing
the little colony, an attempt was made
by four men to cross to the mainland.
They started on foot, but two miles
from the island the ice broke up, and
two Of the men narrowly escaped
death by drowning before the return
TO the island was accomplished.
A week later the men started again
but, when two miles out, they were
caught in binding snow storm. They
wandered about, uncertain of their d.
rection, for nearly a day before find
ing their way back to the island.
Last Monday morning third start
was made. Edward Horn, Carl
Cooper, and Ellis Sayres completed
the party which left the island in
stoutly built skiff, eight feet long.
They carried one pair of oars, an
eight foot pole and an axe.
Had No Food.
They had no food. Nearly starved,
they took turns at the oars. There
was open water for about five miles.
Horn, seated in a physicians office
here, told the story as DIR. L. L.
Flood treated his frozen feet.
"When we ran into slush ice it took
all one mans strength to push the
boat a few feet. The ice became
thicker, and we attempted to lift the
boat upon it and draw it along, but
the ice broke under our feet.
ave determined to return to the
island, but a stiff wind blew in big
ice floes and we couldn't turn back.
We kept pushing the boat through
the ice all Monday night.
Boat Is Abandoned.
TUESDAY. morning we found a
stretch of open water and were able
to row about two hours until we
came to solid ice.
"We abandoned the boat and start
ed on foot. We had gone only half
mile when we struck open water again
and we went back and dragged the
boat across the ice. After we put
the boat in the water We found that
it leaked badly, and, bail as hard as
we could, it would not stay afloat.
1t sank when We bumped upon
large ice floe at o'clock Tuesday
afternoon, about eight miles from the
mainland.
Ice Floe Used As Raft.
1--WE used the axe to chop a large
piece of floe when we found open
water at its other end. Then, using
our pole, we started to paddle, using
the cake of ice as our raft.
About O'Clock we started to walk
to land on solid ice, but stiff wind
started to break it up. At 8 o'clock,
completely exhausted, we laid down
in our blankets and slept until 5
o'clock Wednesday morning. The wind
was blowing the ice inshore. We
started walking and jumping across
short stretches of ice. Cooper fell
into the water twice and it required
all of our strength to get him back
on the ice. We made our jump to
the mainland at $50 Wednesday
morning."