Volume XII
Number 24
THE STATE November n
A Weekly Survey of North Carolina
entered as second-class matter. June 1. 1033, at the Postoffice at ftalelch. North Carolina, under the Act ot March 3, 1870
Marooned For 19 Months
on a Lonely Island
Mr. Carwcll, along' with another sailor,
spent more than a year and a half on an un¬
inhabited island in the South Pacific before
being' rescued by a British warship.
SOME of my friends have said
to me that they believed the
readers of The State would be
interested in my shipwreck ex¬
perience which occurred a number
of years ago, particularly .in view
of the fact that many of our men
in service have been shipwrecked
in the last two or three years.
My stay on an uninhabited is¬
land in the South Pacific — the
Tasman Sea, to be exact — was a
rather lengthy one. It lasted for
19 months, and during that length
of time we did not see another
human being.
I was born in Cabarrus County
and went into the merchant marine
service when I was 14 years old.
The shipwreck occurred in the
spring of 1921. I was 34 years old
at the time.
Aboard a British Ship
The name of our ship was the
Queen Mary. She was a freighter
of about 12,000 tons. A British
ship. We sailed from Liverpool.
England to Salonika, Greece, with
a mixed cargo. Then to Cape¬
town, South Africa. From there
we went to various other ports and
finally put in at Antifigastian.
Chile, where we loaded a cargo of
phosphate and sailed for Mel¬
bourne, Australia. A storm over¬
took us and we went south of our
charted course. We found out later
that our compass was out of fix.
The wreck occurred on a Thurs¬
day. We had no knowledge of any
dangerous waters until the ship
suddenly started rising at the bow.
There was a grating noise. The
Bt/
К.
C. CAKWFXL
ship wedged itself firmly on what
is known as a cradle: a declevity
between two under-water peaks.
She began making water rapidly.
For three days we worked the
pumps, but the water gained
steadily, and finally the Captain
told us that we would have to
abandon ship. He and the first
officer and several men got into
the power launch and started off.
Other men got into the life-boats
and also left the ship. There were
38 men in our crew. I know that
it is customary for the captain
to be the last man to leave a sink¬
TIIE COVER PICTURE
Lt. and Mrs. James P. Cour-
vels, of Boston. Mass., are
caught by the cameraman
underneath the mooschead
which is serving as a hatrack
during a dance at the Officers’
Club at Lake Lure, where the
two are taking a three-weeks
rest (and honeymoon) after
the lieutenant’s services over¬
seas as a P-51 pilot. He flew
no less than 106 missions in
the CBI area before returning
for a rest. He wears the DFC
and the Air Medal with Oak
Leaf cluster. Mrs. Courvels
is the former Betty Rogers,
also of Boston.
ing craft, but that didn’t happen
in this case. He was the first
one.
Only two of us were left on the
ship. I was one. and the other
was Adison Hoytt, a German, with
whom I had been shipmates for
about 8 years. We climbed to the
top of the mast and, with the aid
of a telescope, saw an island on
the western horizon. We judged
that it was about 65 miles away.
Then we took some lumber and
made a sizable raft. On this raft we
placed canned goods, flour, meat,
guns, ammunition and other sup¬
plies. We had no difficulty in
launching the raft, because the sea
was calm. Then Adison and I got
into the life-boat that had been
left us. It had a sail on it. We
shoved away from the side of the
Queen Mary, hoisted our little sail
and towed the raft behind us.
Fair Weather
Thank goodness we didn’t meet
with any stormy weather. We
had pocket-compasses so we didn’t
have any trouble staying on our
course. We made the island in
24 hours, which was excellent
time, considering the fact that the
raft was quite a drag.
We landed on the beach at high
tide. There wasn’t much surf. We
made the boat and raft fast and
then, when the tide went out, they
were both high and dry on the
beach. We proceeded to unload
all of our supplies and stored them
in a sort of cave in a large rock
(Continued on page 19)
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