People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1893 — LIVED ON HUMAN FLESH. [ARTICLE]

LIVED ON HUMAN FLESH.

Awful Story of Suffering Endured by Shipwrecked Sailors. HAMBURG, Feb. 1.—For sixteen days the three sailors rescued from the Norwegian ship Thekla subsisted on human flesh. The three strangled a fourth companion and lived on raw strips of meat cut from his corpse. From the time of their rescue until Tuesday the three unfortunates have been insane from their sufferings in the rigging of the foundering ship. Two of them recovered sufficiently to tell the story of the Thekla’s voyage. The Thekla was in heavy weather, they say, from December 2, when she left Philadelphia. Her decks were flooded almost constantly, deck-houses and rails were swept away and the steering apparatus was broken. When it was found that there was no hope of bringing the ship into port the master, mate and eight seamen got away, in a boat. The other boats had been smashed by the waves before they could he lowered. Nine men were obliged to remain in the rigging. They were unable to get food from below, and five of them, made insane by exposure and privation, jumped overboard. The other four remained aboard from December 22 till January 7, the day of the rescue. On the thrteenth day lots were drawn to determine which one of the four should be killed and eaten. The lot fell twice in succession to a Dutch sailor, and he was strangled and devoured raw by the other three. The only drinking water the seaman got was the dew they licked from the ropes.