Evening star., 1942-10-04
81 Days Adrift on a Raft
Prayer for Relief Is Answered
As SquoII Supplies Water

All of the sixth day we kept watch
ing and hoping for another squall.
Our thirst, whetted by that first
drink, had now become intense. The
water we had taken must have been
absorbed almost Immediately by our
tortured systems. AS the suns rays
heated us we had again the burn
ing dryness in our throats that had
become all too familiar-but now it
was worse.
AS for hunger-our shrunken
stomachs were numb now.
Turn Once More To Prayer
That evening Gene suggested an
other prayer, pointing out that we
hadn't done so badly on the first
one. This time we began with
hymns, When the Roll Is Called
Up Yonder" and The Little Brown
Church in the WILDWOOD" filling in
where we had forgotten the words.
Then, the prayer for rain having
worked so well, we decided to ask
for food, and incidentally a little
more rain.
After our prayer meeting we felt
much better, and we talked until
we'll into the night. Each of us
told his life history, and we began
to get really well acquainted.
This night I might have slept
little, I don't know. Several times
I fell into a doze, and Immediately,
it seemed, snapped awake With
the terrifying feeling that the boat
had been punctured and was sink
ing. This nightmare recurred sew
eral times. Other times I dreamed
that the sun was cooking me, and
steam was rising from my body
The other lads experienced exactly
the same thing. They complained
frequently about nightmares, es-
pecially later on. This was probably
a result of the mental strain we
were all suffering. At any rate, these
Nightmares added considerably to
the misery of our nights. They were
the more discomf1ting because there
was nothing we could do about them.
We were not so glad to see the
dawn, this seventh morning. The
sun had become our enemy.
Little Fish Stay With Boat.
Today there were sWarms of little
tropical fish swimming about the
boat. feeding and playing. They
would swim up close, roll on their
sides and gaze at us with their
little goggleeyes, giving very
humorous effect. Actually, they
were not looking at us, but at the
bright orange boat. One little black
fellow came within six inches of
the side of the boat, and lay almost
motionless near the surface of the
water.
Gene, who was fishing with the
knife now since our line and red
bandanna bait had failed, made a
desperate jab at the little black one,
but succeeded only in grazing his
side. We noted that this particular
fish stayed with us about three
weeks. We could distinguish him
after that by the white scar left
in his dark hide by Genes knife.
Everything we had of metal was
rusting badly by now, especially the
gun, which was better grade of
steel than the pocketknife and
useless pliers. Frequent saltwater
baths began. to rust the guns blue
surface, which was thin coating
of oXidization. The inside of the
barrel also was rusting, but occa-
sional shooting at birds kept this
part clean at first. When the in
evitable corrosion began to set in,
Tony made every effort to keep the
gun in good condition. #
Every day after the sun had
dried the boat and everything in
it, Tony would 60 to work on the
gun, scraping and cleaning as best
he could with no oil. We had a
little grease from the inside of the
empty magazine clip, which we had
taken apart to see what useful
pieces we could get out of it. This
grease was too heavy to be of any
real benefit. but Tony used all of
1t on the pistol, in an effort to
keep it in working condition as
long as possible. The grease helped
some in keeping salt water from the
magazine slide, in the grooves and
working parts, but there wasn't
enough.
The pocketknife and pliers we
scraped and polished as best we
could.
Continued tomorrow,
(CopyriRht, 1912, by Henry Holt l. Co., Inc.
Distributed by King Features, Inc.)