Year: 1875




Terrible Tale OF the Survivors OF a


Burntng Caal AhIr-Aan Eating


Extraordinary.


From the San Francisco Chronicle.I


The Straits Times of the 10th Of No
vember contains the affidavits, taken at
the British Consulate, Batavia, of Eve
men, the survivors Of one boats crew of
the ship Euxine, which left North Shields
on the llth Of June last with Goals for
Alden. When she was less than two
months out, after she had encountered a
heavy storm her cargo of Goals was
found to be on fire, and after several
days Of gallant but unsuccessful struggle
with the flames, the captain, officers and
crew, in all thirty.one men, had to con.
fess themselves vanquished, to leave
the ship and to take to their boats.in the
open sea. The fate Of two of the boats
is as yet unknown, but those in the third
suffered almost incredible agonies The
second mate, John Archer, after detail
ing the sufferings Of their boat s crew Of
seven men, from August 9th, when they
left the ship, says: "On August 30th
our thirst and hunger were intense; we
commenced to drink salt water August
30th. On the 3lst of August Miller got
delirious; this was probably brought
about by drinking so much salt water
He declared that be


OFFERED HIS BODY AS FOOD


for the others, and entreated them to kill
and devour him. We did not heed him
After a time Manus Schutt proposed
that they should cast lots who should fall
as q sacrifice for keeping the others
alive To this we ell consented. Hav.
ing no other means to make lottery,
we hit upon using small sticks Of differ
ent sizes, deciding that the one who
drew the smallest should be the victim.
After having made the sticks ready,
held them in my hand while the others
drew, On comparing them together we
found that the Italian, Francis Shufus,
held the smallest stick. Having also
agreed that the lottery should be thrice
repeated and that when it should then
prove that either two or three of us had
drawn the shortest stick, these should
.f bAol lstlo AmOAG InEMSELtESt


so that the victim might be singled out
we found that the same man had for q
second time picked out the same object.
Francis Shufus, when his turn came for
the third drawing, hesitated to join and
would not draw, upon which the man
Sandstrom proposed he would do it for
him. This he did, and the shortest stick
was found in Sandstrom's hand. Shufus
bore it with great calmness and showed
the utmost resignation. He was left
alone for some two hours, while we now
and then eagerly looked around the hor.
izon to see whether a sail could be per
ceiyed or any help would come We
stood upon the thwarts. Shufus pre-
pared himself to meet his fate by pray.
ing and speaking in Italian. He gave
US no parting message to be sent to his
friends, most probably as he hardly
knew more English than to say yes and
no. His bearing was that of a man
whose mind was made up. Seeing that
we were past help, and feeling that our
hunger and thirst had grown beyond
further endurance, we saw ourselves
driven to sacrifice Shufus. He laid him
self down, but before that August Mul
Ter had told him that he would take his
place and die for him, This Shufus re.
fused, and laying himself down in the
bottom Of the boat gave himself up to be
tied; then one man held the empty
bouilli tin so as to catch in it the blood
Muller, on saying that now some one
must die for the others, passed the
knife around the mans throat. He did
not struggle or scream.


THE BLOOD WAS DRUNK BY US ALL.
#Muller then cut out his liver and heart
These we cut into small pieces and ate
them, mixed with the blood and sail
water. At the last moments of Shufus
was at the helm. The head and feet
we're thrown away, the trunk and limbs
we're put inte the air tight tins of our
lifeboat, which we had opened. We con
tinued on our way 1t might have been
two o'clock in the afternoon when the
man Shafus died. Some three hours af
ter ship was seen, which, on seeing the
boat, made for us. On nearing the vesse
we threw away the remains Of the corpse
In our exhausted state we were helped
on board. The vessel was the Jaws
packet, Captain G. Trappen, master, o
Amsterdam, from that port to Batavia
This was on the 3lst Of August. w
we're we'll treated and on the I'd Of No
vember the vessel arrived at BataviI
roads.