Evening star., 1932-12-18

cured some years ago Oh q SIcdiACA PAJ
ing between New York and the Mediter-
ranean. The ship was nearing Gibraltar
and about 9 o'clock one night Hun
earian steward, known to be suffering
from an incurable disease, suddenly
climbed onto the rail and dived over
the stern before any of his astonished
shipmates could put out hand to save
him. The captain brought the ship
round and two boats were Immediately
lowered and sent away to search. 1t
was dead calm, quite warm, but pitch
dark, there being no moon. After the
boats crews had rowed about in all di-
rections for more than three hours with
out result the ship proceeded on her
voyage.
About 2 o'clock the next afternoon we
were amazed to get this radio message
from an Italian steamer astern of us:
"At noon today picked up Hungarian
steward named Rath. States he jumped
overheard from your ship last night.
Will transfer him to you at Naples" He
had been in the water for Is hours!
We duly received him on board at
Naples. He told the doctor that he had
seen and heard the boats searching for
him and had deliberately avoided them,
as he wished to die, but somehow or
other he was unable to let himself
drown!
One of the most dreaded things that
can happen to ship is to be on fire at
sea-. And when such a catastrophe
occurs in the middle of the North At
lantic during a bowling Winter gale, it
presents a spectacle almost too dreadful
to contemplate. Such calamity over
took the steamer Volturno in 1913. She
was proceeding from New York to Liver
pool with about 400 passengers and crew.
In the early hours of the morning fire
broke out in the forward hold. The iron
bulkhead, becoming redhot, set fire to
the cargo in the next hold mo. y and
this spread to No. 3 hold, so that within
a few hours the forward part of the
ship was an inferno.
The o S was picked up by the
steamer Carmania, SO miles away. She
raced to the scene and closed on the
Volturno at 2:30 pm. It was blowing a
whole gale accompanied by hurricane
squalls and mountainous, icy sea. The
Volturno was stopped, wallowing dan
gerously in the trough of the waves and
blazing fiercely. She was well down by
the head, from the great quantities of
water that had been pumped into the
burning holds, and her foremast had
gone by the board, carrying her aerial
with it and thereby cutting her of from
wireless communication
THE passengers, with many women
and children among them, could be
seen huddled together at the stern, max
ing piteous gestures to the rescue ship.
The Carmania's captain, a fine,
sterling seaman of the old school, real
lied with dismay that it was well-nigh
impossible to send boat away in such
a terrible sea. But the sight of those
'helpless folk was more than flesh and
blood could stand. Extraordinary eff
forts had to be made
There were plenty of volunteers, and
after many hairbreadth escapes, boat
was lowered and managed to get away
from the ships side. But the crew could
do nothing with her. Within a few min
utes all the oars had either snapped in
two or been torn out of the sailors
hands by the sweeping seas, and the
boat was drifting helplessly before the
gale. The oarsmen contrived to get a
sea anchor out which brought the boats
head round to the wind and sea, but it
seemed that nothing short of miracle
could save the boat from being over
whelmed by the wicked, curling crests