Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1925-01-15

A STORY OF STARVING SEAMEN

A STORY OF STARVING SEAMEN
NEW YORK, Jan. 13th-~Let me
burn with my ship. She has finally
brought us to safety, and want to
go up in flames with her"
Captain Jos Magano, master Of
the Portuguese four-masted schoon-
err Manuel Caragol, shouted this plea
to a rescue crew from the American
freighter Kenowls as they came a.
board his sinking derelict command,
ready to burn her as menace to
navigation.
His own crew, and those from the
rescue steamer sought to pacify the
Portuguese captain, but he stood re-
solutely behind the wheel on the
poop-deck, reiterating his determin-
alton.
1t was no time for argument. 1t
was time for action. A couple of
husky sailormen rushed at the grief
stricken captain and without much
ceremony hurled him into lifebcat.
A moment later buckets of oil were
being pitched over the Manuel Cara
gols decks, and five minutes later
she was ablaze from stem to stern,
not as funeral pyre to the brave
captain, but to the lone living thing
left aboard ship-the ships cat.
Water and Food Gone
This happened at daybreak last
Saturday, 240 miles southeast of New
York, as the schooner was being toss
ed about as the waves fancied. 1t
was related when the shipwrecked
crew of sixteen landed here yester-
day from the Kenowis.
The rescue took place days after
the last morsel of food had been ex-
hausted and the last drop of fresh
water had been feverishly swallowed.
The day before the rescue ship came
into sight, the entire crew of sixteen,
at the behest of their captain, had
fallen to their knees and for half an
hour prayed that their families in
Portugal be taken care of. They
had given up all hope for themselves.
After the prayers had been said,
the captain, partially delirious from
the pain of three broken ribs from
which he had suffered four days pre-
viously, rushed to the deck, pistol in
hand, announcing he was about to
commit suicide. He was felled, and
the pistol taken from him.
Away back last August, the Man
uel Garagol left Montivedo for Phil
adelphia with cargo of bones for
fertilizer. A few days later she was
stripped of her sails in hurricane,
and put into Rio for repairs. In Oct.
she once more started for Philadel-
phia, expecting to reach there Nov
ember 25
Plaything of Stones
A series of storms drove her hum
dreds of miles eff her COZ e. Fin
ally, little more than two ~aalSs ago,
she managed to get within seventy
two miles of New York Then an
other northwest gale caught her and
threw her back more than ITO miles.
Food was exhausted. So was water
The hard sailors had little strength
left to man the sails. AS result, a
hurricane stripped all the canvas
from her four masts week ago, and
the ship was helpless. In addition
she was leaking. 1t was on this day
that boom swung and struck the
captain, breaking his ribs. The cap
tain, through an interpreter and said
yesterday:
"We had given up all hope. We
knew we were off steamship lanes,
and there was nothing left for US to
do, but die. | ordered the men to
say their prayers last Friday, after
the last rain water that we had
caught in pals, was finished That
night we burned our last flare"
The Kenowis, also 200 miles off
her course from Antwerp to New
York, and herself seven days overdue,
numbered along. The flare was dis
covered at o'clock in the morning.
Half hour later rescue crew was
alongside.