| Show AFLOAT ON AN ICE FLOE Sufferings of Three Men Carried Away in Their Fishing Shanties Last Friday week forenoon L G Fittinger aged 61 years and a man by the name of Costing aged 56 years left Bay Port for a fish going out on the ice in Saginaw bay about a mile each taking along th e usual fish shanty They spent the day in fishing fish-ing and that night as usual slept in the shanties Saturday morning they made the awful discovery that the ice on which they were had broken lose from the ice near the shore and was floating out into the bay They hastily endeavored to find a place on the large ic craft which was near enough to the shore for them to land but escape was impossible as they had gone too far out into the bay They now bunched their shanties in hopes that they might by keeping them together use them in some manner to reach land They continued to drift further into the bay and Saturday night found them but one and onehalf miles from the Little Charity islands the ice they were on reduced fully threefourths in size and the shanties which contained their small supply of provisions gone Who can portray the thoughts of the unfortunate men at this time being be-ing on a comparatively small piece of ice portions of which were constantly breaking off each departing piece they f probably realized but signaling their doom the weather at freezing point their clothing frozen stiff with the icy spray and themselves chilled to the marrow Did they think of loved ones at home whom they would probably never see again But their cruel experience I ex-perience had only begun They thought perhaps that they i might by walking to a certain portion of the ice reach Point Lookout but the wind carried them further northeast north-east and this faint hope vanished They were now in the channel and could see the lighthouse at Tawas They now had hopes of drifting near enough to Tawas to make themselves heard on the land but the wind shifted and they were carried back to within onehalf mile of the northeast side of Big Charity islands Thus they drifted Saturday night Sunday and Sunday night the weather constantly growing colder Early Mon day morning the ice broke badly and they were left on a piece about twenty feet square Costing who had become crazed by long suffering started to reach land by jumping from cake to k ake About three hour later his despairing cry for help was heard by Fittinger and Van Pelt and he was seen to sink amid the ice to rise no more Before daybreak Fittinger attempted to end his terrible sufferings atempte bing himself but was prevented by Van Pelt who had all along bravely assisted and encouraged him as much as possible The broken pieces of ice had during the night partially frozen together and the two men resolved to make a lat l desperate struggle to reach land They commenced to crawl on their hands and knees in a direction supposedly sup-posedly towards Saseville Fittinger soon became exhausted and Van Pelt concluded to leave him and push on Fittinger encouraging him to do so Van Pelt succeeded in getting within about a quarter of a mile of the shore and his joy can be imagined when he became aware that two men who were him hewing timber on the shore noticed him They hurried to Caseville secured a boat and help and soon reached Van Pelt although to him 1 seemed almost an age He was rescued none too soon as the ice he was standing upon was but about six feet square and his weight settled It to the extent that he was standing in almost a foot of water Fittinger was found about a mile and threequarters farther out in the bay He was so near dead that it was with difficulty he could raise himself j I upon his elbows to see nis approaching < rEscuer The rescuers after going a near to him as they could with the boat found it necessary to send one of their number across a thin portion of ice on a pushsleigh Fittinger was turned over on his back and dragged I behind the sleigh to the boat the ice not being strong enough to admit of I I any one walking across In a short time after being rescued LI L Van Pelt and Fittinger were as two dead men During their terrible voyage voy-age and struggle for life they were nerved to almost superhuman efforts and not until beyond all danger of the icy waters did they fully realize the extent of their bodily injuries They were cut bruised and frozen Their clothing which It was necessary to remove by cutting was worn entirely en-tirely through in many places exposing their badlymutilated flesh i I All that medical skill can suggest i and kind friends can do for them is being done and it is thought with careful care-ful nursing they will recover in due time but their three days and three nights terrible experience on Saginaw bay will never be recalled to their L memory without a shudder Fittinger 1 has returhed from Bay City but a short time before leaving Bay Port where he had drawn 500 out of the bank and this sum he lost with his flail shantyCass City Mich Enterprise |
