Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1874 — A Remarkable Adventure at Sea. [ARTICLE]

A Remarkable Adventure at Sea.

That tlie sea should give up its dead seems hardly a greater miracle than that in some cases it should give up its victims alive. Stories of escape from angry waves upon desolate coasts have filled chapter after chapter of works of fiction, and the power and immensity of the ocean have made it the chosen symbol of the cruelty and rclentlessness of fate. One would scarcely expect after the exhaustion of the imagination of writers like Capt. Marryatt and Victor Hugo that it was reserved for plain matter of fact to outrival the invention of the. novelist; and yet there is at present stopping at tlie Fifth Avenue Hotel in this city a young man whose adventures and escape pass to the very verge of the marvelous. Like so many other instances of human peril, it seems to have provided itself with its own setting of romance. In 1854 the gates of the far East were first opened to Western commerce. The first vessel that ever entered a Chinese port wa9 the Seabird. She was commanded by an Ohioan named P. 11. De Vol. Originally of French descent, he was himself thoroughly an American in physique, nervous energy, love of adventure and self-reliance in the moment of danger. In stature he was six and one-half feet. He had left in his home in what was then the far West a young wife and a boy about one year old. His own exploits in the Orient added not a little to the credit of his countrymen La that part of the globe. Inasmuch as they relate only indirectly to the matter in hand, they should be rapidly sketched. Attracting the attention of the then King of Siam, he was placed in command of an expedition, his son relates, against the Japanese pirates that infested the coast, and in reward for .several decisive victories he was made the recipient of distinguished marks of the royal favor, among them being thegift of a white elephant. Not long afterward he conducted- another expedition against the pirates, and this time drove them out of Siamese waters. He was again encumbered with a gift of the same kind and what he deemed of much greater value, a privilege to enter the mountain region of Siam to mine for gold. On his way thither, however, he died of a jungle fever.

His strange fortunes in the East had their effect on his son. Nothing but a life of adventure would satisfy his boyish spirit, and at the earliest age possible his mother by the aid of family friends secured him an appointment at the United States Naval School at Annapolis. He graduated with honor, and last August, after a brief vacation, he was ordered to report for duty at Queenstown. Upon his arrival there he was ordered to report at Nice, where the American squadron in European waters was then lying. At Nice he was ordered on board the frigate Omaha, which was transferred to Queenstown. About the 20th of September, while less than two days’ sail from Southampton, a violent squall arose, and during its continuance young De Vol was directed by the captain to convey an order to the officer stationed on the bridge. As he was going forward a huge sea came over the side and the frigate with its monstrous burden lurched heavily to leeward. The taffrail was low, and being between masts the young midshipman was swirled with the wash over the side. The officer on the bridge saw him and did the little he could to save him. He seized a large circular cork life-buoy and hurled it with all his might toward the point where the young sailor was seen struggling with the waves. It was the work of more than a second. To the buoy was fixed a line about ten yards long, and as the buoy passed over him beyond his reach this line fell across his back. He caught the end, and while, the staggering vessel drove helplessly on in the storm he drew the buoy to him and placed it over his head. He was now safe for the moment, but he says death itself would hare been a pleasing sensation compared to his feelings as he saw the Omaha disappear behind successive hills of angry water. His knowledge of. seamanship told h,ini at once that no captain would dare put his vessel about or attempt to lower a boat in the violent wind and sea that were, raging.

“In a little while,” he relates, “I could only see the masts and cordage whipping against the sky and.l gave up all hope?: I tried to swim toward it instinctively, though I knew it was of no use, and that my only hope was to outride the squall on my buoy if possible and be picked up after floating a few hours.” The violence of the storm did not last, as he estimates, but tWo or three hours, although it seethed days to him, but no vessels came near enough to discover him. The water, stirred from beneath by the wind, was cold, and he began to grow numb and weak. Fortunately, the cork life-preserver, which at first was so loose that he had some difficulty in keeping it in its under his arms, began to tighten as the cork swelled with the moisture. Subsequently it held itself well in place. It was about four o’clock when he was washed overboard. At night he had grown quite weak and his limits were very numb.

“ As the darkness began to gather,” he narrates, “ 1 felt that I have to drown. Before this I knew that my chanees were desperate, hat somehow while it Was light I had had hope. Then I began to pray. I don’t know how long a time elapsed. Attunes I would pray for several minutes, and then I would find myself thinking of a thousand things! about my home anil my mother and ray father, and about my past life. It seemed as if all the good things and bad things I had ever done or thought of came back to me. Occasionally I would start up as if from a revery, and" strike out to swim. At such times the water and sky would look so black and pijiless that it would seem to fairly frighten me, and I would be forced to shut my eyes. I can’t tell how long I suffered in this way, hut it seemed ages. Then indistinctly I remember another sensation. My limbs were numb.and utterly without strength, but a pleasant, listless, dreamy sort of feeling took possession of me. My sides, which had been chafed by the movements of the life-preserver, ceased to pain me. I cannot say 1 was happy, or that I was entirely unconscious of my position, but I didn’t seem to care. This state of dim consciousness was the last that I remember.” At sunrise the next morning he was found by the United States merchant steamer Indiana floating in the water in seftsible. ile-haff lieen in —the water fourteen hours. A great deal of salt water was found in his stomach, but he WM_still alive, and after careful medical treatment was completely restored. He arrived in New York a few days ago. On the 30th of September his mother, then stopping in Lancaster, 0., received a dispatch from the commander of the Omaha, announcing the death of her son, who it was stated had been washed overboard in the Irish Sea. This dispatch was published, and was made the occasion of many obituary notices in Ohio papers: The joy of the mother, who happened to be in this city, upon receiving the news that her son had arisen from the dead need not be dwelt upon. Mr. Harry P. De Vol is looking well after his exhausting adventure and almost miraculous escape. Upon one thing he is certainly to be congratulated. He has read several of his obituary notices, and confesses that he is very well satisfied with them. —AT Y. Graphic.