Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1898 — SAVED BY TWO DREAMS [ARTICLE]

SAVED BY TWO DREAMS

Castaway's Two Shipmates Dreamed of Him and Went to His Rescue. The life of Arthue Frazier, one of the crew of the Eliza S. Foster, the fisherman just In from the Grand Banks, was saved by a dream, says a Bucksport (Me.) dispatch in the Boston Journal. One day when he was out In a dory there was a strong northwest wind and a heavy fog shut down and hid the ship from view. He was making for the vessel with a heavy load of fish, when a heavy sea boarded his dory, carrying away one of his oars and nearly making his boat unseaworthy. This left him in a helpless condition, and he was at the mercy of the wind and waves. He yelled at the top of his voice. The mem on board heard his cries, but could not see him or understand what he said. They could hear him as his voice grew weaker and fainter till nothing could be heard but the .mournful wind whistling through the rigging; then his voice died away. He did not return that night, and the wind blew almost a gale.

In the morning the wind was strong and the fog hung low. No sign of Frazier could be seen. There was a large fleet of vessels from different parts of the world—France, Portugal, Ireland and America—and when Frazier failed to return members of his crew went among the near-by ones and reported a man lost. Not one had heard of him. At about noon the sun came out and pushed the clouds of fog away, but the wind held to the same point. The Foster hoisted the flag to halfmast to give notice to the fleet of a missing man. The custom is in such cases that should the man be on any other of the fleet an answer of flag at half-mast is given. No answer came all the afternoon, the flag still held that position, and the wind kept up almost a gale. That night passed; no Frazier appeared, and during the night the wind shifted two points to south’ard. Next morning it was back to northwest again. Frazier was given up as lost. It was supposed that the dory was capsized when his calls were heard, so the men resumed work with a feeling of sorrow, for Frazier was the life of the crew, and kept them in constant laughter; At about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, as the cook was scanning the horizon with a glass, he noticed a black speck in the ocean. He told the captain and crew, and asked them to look. They did so. One man said it was a whale, another thought it was a ship, and so on. The cook and John White, who were the close friends of Frazier, believed it must be he, and proposed to lower a boat and go to meet him. Both men had an odd dream the night before. The, cook dreamed that Frazier had lost an oar and that the wind had borne him away, and he said he was called out of a sound sleep by Frazier, who said: “Don’t give me up. I’m beating back.” White said his dream was that Frazier had broken his right arm and could use only one oar; that he was alive and hungry in midocean. Both men, on comparing notes, found that they were awakened on the same instant by Frazier calling them and telling them: “For heaven’s sake, take a dory and come to leeward.” When they saw this speck on the ocean, they lowered a dory, in spite of the jeers of some others of the crew, and put off. They rowed in the direction of the dot, and soon were out of sight themselves, for a heavy fog had shut from view the ship, but not the little tattered sail ahead. At 6 o’clock they reached a boat that was beating against the wind, aud, sure enough, It was Frazier. He was in the stern, using the oar as a tiller. It was just as they head dreamed, he had but one oar agd his arm was disabled from a bldw received in fitting the main boom. He was in a frightful condition. He didn’t appear to notice the boat until they were within a few hundred yards of him; then White yelled to Frazier and the latter fainted away with joy. His boat began drifting and the other oar went over the rail. It was quite a race, but the rescuers soon overtook the dory and took the man to their own boat, and letting the dory go to sea they made for the ship. That night there was intense excitement aboard ship. There were three men missing how. Fog horns were blown and bells rung until a late hour, and then, as if the last hope for their return had been given up, the noise all died away. The trio in the boat, who had neared the ship, now could not make themselves heard against the wind. All night long did they beat their way against the wind, their only hope being to hold the same position till daybreak. As the day dawned they were surprised to find that the fog had lifted, that they had passed the ship, and that they were about three miles to windward, but the fleet was in sight. There was no difficulty in getting back to ship, where they were taken aboard. Frazier was nearly exhausted for want of food and water. Old sailors say that not one man in 10,000 would have had presence of mind enough to beat against the wind in such a ease with no compass aboard.