Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-29

what was dong Gnen-1 the lorna 20 naunb
snatched me from the canted deck, as fly Is
blown off a wall 1t broke me from my frantic
hold on that rope and hurled me headlong into
the sea.
sank deep, but forced my way TO the seeth-
ing surface with bursting lungs. The flying
spindrift nearly drowned me as I swan, and
had to keep my head almost under water.
knew the dory had foated of, and that she
must be somewhere near to Reward. struck
out nightly, in kind of frenzy I suppose
but it was pitch dark now. In that heavy sea
was like a coIk-rising and falling dizzily ON
every wave until began to experience giddiness
and nausea I spouted sea-water through my
nose. whizzing spindrift enveloped me.
thought heard voices calling Hallucination.
Nothing could be heard above the frightful
shrieks and howls of the wind Again it seemed
to me like the cries of lost souls in torment.
Odd and terrifying fancies began TO form in my
brain, while swan mechanically -swimming-
treading water misunderstanding ater-my
staring, smarting eyes seeking vainly to pierce
the darkness, looking wildly for little dory.
felt that had to keep on the move, to keep
on swimming-the surging water in my ears was
better than that damnable screaming of the
wind. Never had I heard anything like it
before, and devoutly pray it may never be my
fate to hear it again
MY hand touched mans leg. Passing my
AVA hand up to his shoulder, found that ho
than half a dozen others. But I did not know
how many were there until day broke. 1t was
useless to try to speak The noise was too
great. And the night was black-dark.
just hung on for hours and hours. Some,
times the dory turned over and ducked us.
but we hung grimly on all night. And when
say We hung on mean it, We were not lightly
clinging to drifting craft. The tornado drove
that dory through the water at racing speed
so fast, indeed, that it often threatened t0
break from our grasp. After an hour 90 two,
my hands began to bleed.
Just before dawn, we sighted the Gigantea
Light to the south. The Isles of Gigantes are
of the northeasterly point of Panay-and
knew that the tornado had carried us In a half
circle from the spot where Culion had
foundered. I was terribly exhausted when day
light broke, but the wind had begun to Slacken
and at sunrise it had almost dropped. It was
then that counted the heads of the survivors
Of my crew-eight of us, all told, were clinging
to the capsized craft. There were set and
tragic faces, with the fear Of God written on
them, drawn with physical suffering and terror.
One of them was Sinforoso, the diver. We ex.
changed no greetings. Our lips we're cracked
and parched. Our tongues were swollen
noticed, for the first time, that naked.
except for q tattered undervest. suppose my
other garments had been torn Of me-but
never knew.
One Of the survivors a mere lad named
Patr1cio. He hadn't the strength Of a man.
Perhaps in that horror of darkness and welter-
ing waves and shieking winds, fear had lent
him the strength of desperation. In the day
light, in the very early dawn, Patricio turned
his wan face to me. He was hanging on TO
the other side of the dory. Patricio just looked
at me, uttered an unhuman sound something
like the cry of animal-and let go. He
disappeared, and the dOry drifted onward
Nobody said a word
Soon we began to suffer from cramp-
excruciating agonies. It was probably caused
by the salt water we had swallowed. was
miseraby III, racked with pain Somehow we
turned the dory over, weak as we were 50 that
one or two of us could climb in, while the
others chung to her gunwales; she wouldn't float
with more than two aboard. We took it in
turns to have spell in the dory. Even this
small relief from our sufferings came to an
early end, for nasty sea got up and the only
way could keep the dory af1oat was to turn
her keel up and hang on the best way we
could. She had shipped a lot of water ana
though we tried to bale her out, you can't do
much with your bare hands. So we turned her
upside down and used her as a raft.
AS the sun climbed UP into the heavens -
eagerly looked for sight of a sail. But theEm
was nothing to be seen but water. And we
drifted on bliStered by the tropical sun rays and
tortured by thirst. Once we were attacked by
a flock of gulls-and this was something new
in my experience of the sea. I had never heard
of gulls attacking man. But they certainly did
go for uS-Screeching and using their beakw
viciously. They drew blood from a couple Of
my Filipinos and became so bold that man
aged to grab one and kill him-smashed his
head on the keel. When flung his body into
the sea the others swooped down upon it and
allowed us TO drift on without further
mOlestation
We began to talk little among ourselves
but not much. Our voices sounded harsh and
strange. hardly recognized my cwn. And I
noticed that these poor fellows eyes had queer
CLASSY stare; 1t lent them very odd and Im-
canny appearance. The one thing we never