Show a I Adventurers Adventurers' Club 1 ty f a Three Terrible Hours By FLOYD GIBBONS I Famous Headline Hunter I HE sea boys and girls has produced some pretty tough customers What I mean Pop-eye Pop the Sailor isn't entirely lie he figment of a cartoonists cartoonist's imagination Hes He's more than half ruth The lads who spend t their heir whole lives hues fighting the ele- ele rents rients in the places where those elements are at their worst the sort of constitution that a dray horse would envy lome ome me of their feats of endurance are almost unbelievable l Well Vell sir weve we've got a sailor with us today in the person of Distin- Distin Adventurer Janis Libert of Brooklyn N. N Y but Im I'm going to et et t you judge for yourself whether or not Jan is one of the lads who can lake ake ake it when the sea starts dishing it out And just to give you some- some Hing to judge by Im I'm going to tell you the story of an adventure he head head hed ad ad d on St. St Patricks Patrick's day March 17 1920 Jan was signed on as an able seaman on the S. S S. S Tewkesbury bury out of the Peruvian port of with a a cargo of nitrate bound for Hamburg Germany They had passed through the Panama canal coaled ship at St. St Louisburg and then beat their way through high seas and heavy v snowstorms until they were nearing the Newfoundland coast There the first trouble began I She Struck a Submerged Ledge A few miles off Newfoundland the ship was caught in a heavy undersea under under- sea ea ea current that began dragging them toward the barren cliffs that i marked the coast The Tewkesbury was doing 11 knots an hour in inan inan inn an n effort to beat out to sea again but the current was dragging it inshore in- in shore hore at the rate of 30 knots an hour and it was only a matter of arithmetic arithmetic arith- arith to figure out how long shed she'd stay afloat Jan says it was five bells St. St Patricks Patrick's day morning morning a. a m m. o ous us landlubbers when landlubbers when the Tewkesbury struck a submerged ledge bout about a ships ship's length away from the foot cliff that rose in front of faem them 1 em As they struck the VESSELS VESSEL'S BOTTOM WAS VAS RIPPED OUT The stern broke off and slid from the ledge into 30 fathoms of water Immediately the crew tried to launch life-boats life but one by one they were dashed to pieces against the side of the ship by the heavy sea that was running There were two lifeboats left left barely barely enough to carry off the crew of 28 and the 3 passengers pas pas- when when Captain the skipper ordered two men to get into the next boat and fend it off from the sides while it was being lowered One of the men was Jan Libert Jan Was Vas Left to Do the Job Alone It was a hard job job and and a dangerous one Its It's no cinch to fend off a aLeavy Leavy eavy teavy lifeboat in a sea strong enough to dash a steamer against the rocks focks But how dangerous J Jan an had no idea in the beginning He got a pint hint of it though when his partner caught his hand in a pulley and a r l E I It Was Vas a Hard Job Job and and a Dangerous One mashed smashed it while trying to pull in a piece of slack rope That left Jan Janto to 0 fend the boat off alone alone alone-a a perilous two-man two job in the hands of one I IT WAS VAS A BATTLE FOR LIFE Not only Jans Jan's life but the lives of i 1 dozen others as well If that boat smashed up there would be only me fine me left and that barely half hall big enough to hold the passengers and Trew rew The seas were so high that Jan had all he could do to keep the goat from smashing smashing so so violent that the skipper couldn't send another iian an down to help him The Newfoundland waters were cold as ice and ind the Newfoundland winds were colder still As Jan labored to seep the boat away from the side the salt spray collected on his lands soaked soaked his clothing clothing and and froze there The lifeboat was pitching and tossing like a chip in a hurri hurri- cane It was impossible to load the crew into it while the lashing lashing lashing lash lash- ing storm kept up its furious assault And so FOR THREE HOURS Jan fought a battle against cold ice and the Atlantic Atlantic- three terrible hours during which time the only chance to rescue all the crew lay in Jans Jan's freezing hands Snow was falling by the time the wind had calmed and the loading of f the boats started Then minutes after fresher less weary men took ls ewer fiver the task of fending off the boat Jans Jan's hands were frozen and use use- less ss ess Still he wasn't much better off than when hed he'd been fighting the elements Clem alone Tremendous seas rapidly f filled led both boats and due to the he cliffs that stretched along the shore the only place either of them could land was at Peters river 15 miles away Frozen though he was Tan Jan knew it would be a long time before he got a chance to thaw out again Too Cold to Heed the Warning Yarning I While some of the crew rowed and the others bailed for their lives the two boats started out on a heartbreaking journey For FOUR MORE HOURS they kept up the struggle And believe me says Jan Tan if I thought I w was as cold before I now knew what cold really was like uke As Ase we e pointed our boat toward the beach a fisherman hailed us and warned us not to try to land there But we were all so cold and weak reak that we knew it was our only chance Desperate the freezing mariners headed their boats into the br breakers akers not knowing what new danger to expect They found out soon enough As the combers threw the boats into shallow water they hit sunken rocks and capsized hurling their occupants in all directions A wave hit Jan and hurled him under water whirled water whirled him round and round He lIe was too weak to fight it He thought he was finished then He was about to give up when he felt gravel travel under his feet H He e stood sank Up-sank ip p sank to his knees in soft sand and remained there rooted to the pot spot exposed to the full lull force of the giant combers that rolled over him one ne after another The world began to go black in front of his eyes and nd the next thing Jan remembered was someone's hand clutching at his neck neck dragging dragging him to shore 1 At J F For F the next few weeks Jan Jan saw everything through a gray haze first he thought he was going blind from exposure After a while though hough the fog log vanish vanished d from before his eyes and he could see as well as s ever You have the whole story now now and and you can judge for yourselves yourselves your your- selves if Jan can take it when Old Man Sea dishes it out I Service |