Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1910 — OVERBOARD AT SEA. [ARTICLE]

OVERBOARD AT SEA.

To be lost overboard on a dark night, hundreds of miles Bouth of the Cape of Good Hope, with a strong wind blowing, and to live to tell the tale, does not happen to many sailors. William Galloway, of the crew of the British ship Kllbrannan, had such an experience several years ago, and told his story to a reporter of a San Francisco newspaper of the time, from which the ffe&ovring account is taken: Galloway Is a brown-faced Scotch ladle who says “mither” for mother, and Everything about him, from the frayed bottoms -of his Jean trousers to the wiry-looklng tufts of hair which peep from beneath the front beak, bf his little fore-and-aft cap, betoken the rollicking, happy-ge-lucky deep-sea sailor boy. Of his adventure, Flrht Mate William Coalfleet said. * “It was 8 o’clock In the evening. were fifty-five days out from Philadelphia, bound for Hiogo, Japan, and near latitude forty-four one south, longitude fourteen forty-four east. A strong, easterly wind was blowing. It was dark apd bitter cold, and the sea was running very high. “Galloway was half-way up the ratlines, unhooking a block from the main sheet, when the ship gave a lurch and he fell into the sea. “The captain threw him a life budy. The ship was brought up in the wihd as quickly as possible and a boat lowered and manned. I took command other. "We heard the boy shout as we were lowering the boat, but he had yelled himself hoarse, and we had nothing to guide as as we pulled aimlessly about in the heavy sea. “We pulled round fonovqy an hour, and as we lost sight of the ship several times, and the "night was getting rougher and thicker, I was about to give up the search in despair, when we heard a feeble moan, and straining our eves saw Galloway clinging to the life Irnof, almost under our bow. “We soon had him on board, but It took some slapping and rubbing to put warmth into his rigid limbs.”' Galloway said to the reporter, “I am a good swimmer and managed to ride the big seas that came along, but It was terribly cold, and my legs began to feel like lead. It was a good job for me that the water was so black, or I never could,have seen the white life buoy as it came to me on the crest of a -wave. “I got it under my arms and stopped paddling. I was tired out. I shouted as long as I could, but my voice grew husky. “The albatrosses and mollyhawks swooped down on me, and I kept waving my arms, thinking every moment that one of them would drive its beak through my skull. “I lost all hope, and thought of mother and my sisters in Glasgow. Then I saw the white hull of the mate's boat. I triad hard to shout They heard me and I was soon hauled on board. “The me medicine, and with plenty of warn blankets ahd hot coffee, I soon began fb feel myself again.” * •