Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 308, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1910 — CHINESE SAILORS FEED FISH [ARTICLE]

CHINESE SAILORS FEED FISH

Crew of Steamer Chatham Throw Food Overboard for Member Lost by Drowning. Boston.—So that their drowned brother might not feel the pangs of hunger while on the spiritual highroad to the other world, 23 Chinese sailors, comprising the crew of the British steamer Chatham, which reached Boston the other day from the west coast of South America, threw rice and other foodstuffs into the sea all the way from off the coast of Brazil to Boston lightship. Li Chow was the late lamented. Chow fell overboard while engaged in boat drill when the steamer was off the coast of Brazil. The Chatham was stopped and lifeboats launched, but before the speediest of them got within twenty feet of Chow he disappeared beneath the waves. Almost Immediately after the steamer resumed her way the rest of the Chinese on board began stinting themselves and casting overboard what they saved from their own fare so that Chow might not go hungry. That the Chatham encountered severe weather in her 10,000-mile journey was amply testified to by damaged deck fittings and smashed deck houses. The steamer was very hard hit when passing through the Straits of Michigan, sustaining most of the damage a* that period. She was caught in a blizzard that kicked up waves, which in washing over her decks tore up steampipes and washed all movable objects overboard. The. steamer’s hospital was smashed in by one comber and several of the crew had to ding with all their might lest they be carried overboard by the receding water. Throughout most of the passage from Chile to Montevideo

the steamer was covered with ice and snow, winter weather prevailing. - The Chatham started from Junin, Chile, on August 22, and called at five ports while en route. At Antofagasta she took on 3,010 tons of silver ore, valued at $500,000, and thus her cargo was one of the most valuable ever brought to Boston from South America.