August 11, 2025 • 6 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
One in the dinghy of the Lady Vain. I do
not propose to add anything to what has already been
written concerning the loss of the Lady Vain. As every
one knows, she collided with a derelict when ten days
out from Callao. The long boat with seven of the crew,
was picked up eighteen days after by ea chim gun
(00:21):
boat Myrtle, and the story of their terrible privations has
become quite as well known as the far more horrible
Medusa case. But I have to add to the published
story of the Lady Vain another, possibly as horrible and
far stranger, has hitherto been supposed that the four men
who are in the dinghy perished. But this is incorrect.
(00:44):
I have the best of evidence for this assertion. I
was one of the four men. But in the first place,
I must state that there were never four men in
the dinghy. The number was three. Constance, who was seen
by the captain to jump into the gar Daily News,
March seventeenth, eighteen eighty seven, luckily for us and unluckily
(01:06):
for himself, did not reach us. He came down out
of the tangle of ropes under the stays of the
smashed bowsprit. Some small rope caught his heel as he
let go, and he hung for a moment head downward,
and then fell and struck a block or spar floating
in the water. We pulled towards him, but he never
(01:27):
came up. I say, luckily for us, he did not
reach us, and I might almost say luckily for himself,
for he had only a small beaker of water and
some sodden ship's biscuits with us. So sudden had been
the alarm, so unprepared the ship for any disaster, we
thought the people on the launch would be better provisioned,
(01:48):
though it seems they were not, and we tried to
hail them. They could not have heard us, and the
next morning, when the drizzle cleared, which was not until
past midday, we could see nothing of them. We could
not stand up to look about us because of the
pitching of the boat. The two other men who had
escaped so far with me were a man named Helmar,
(02:11):
a passenger like myself, and a seaman whose name I
don't know, a short, sturdy man with a stammer. We
drifted famishing, and after our water had come to an end,
tormented by an intolerable thirst for eight days altogether. After
(02:31):
the second day the sea subsided slowly to a glassy calm.
It is quite possible for the ordinary reader to imagine
those eight days. He has not, luckily for himself anything
in his memory to imagine with. After the first day,
we said little to one another, and lay in our
places in the boat and stared at the horizon, or
(02:53):
watched with eyes that grew larger and more haggard every day,
the misery and weakness gaining upon our companions. The sun
became pitiless. The water ended on the fourth day, and
we were already thinking strange things in saying them with
our eyes. But it was I think the sixth before
(03:15):
Helmar gave voice to the thing we had all been thinking.
I remember our voices were dry and thin, so that
we bent towards one another and spared our words. I
stood out against it with all my might. Was rather
for scuttling the boat and perishing together among the sharks
that followed us. But when Helma said that if his
(03:37):
proposal was accepted, we should have drink, the sailor came
round to him. I would not draw lots. However, and
in the night the sailor whispered to Helmar again and again,
and I sat in the boughs with my clasp knife
in my hand, though I doubt if I had the
stuff in me to fight. And in the morning I
(03:57):
agreed to Helmar's proposal, and we had a half pinced
to find the odd man. The lot fell upon the sailor,
but he was the strongest of us, who would not
abide by it, and attacked Helmar with his hands. They
grappled together and almost stood up. I crawled along the
boat to them, intending to help Helmar by grasping the
(04:17):
sailor's legs, but the sailor stumbled with the swaying of
the boat, and the two fell upon the gunwale and
rolled overboard together. They sank like stones. I remember laughing
at that, and wondering why I laughed. The laugh caught
me suddenly, like a thing from without. I lay across
(04:41):
one of the thwarts for I know not how long,
thinking that if I had the strength, I would drink
sea water and mad myself to die quickly. And even
as I lay there, I saw, with no more interest
than if it had been a picture, a sail come
up towards me over the sky line. My mind must
have been wandering, and yet I remember all that happened
(05:04):
quite distinctly. I remember how my head swayed with the
seas and the horizon, with the sail above it danced
up and down. But I also remember as distinctly that
I had a persuasion that I was dead, and that
I thought what a jest it was that they should
come too late by such a little to catch me
in my body. For an endless period, as it seemed
(05:27):
to me, I lay with my head on the thwart,
watching the schooner. She was a little ship schooner rigged
fore and aft, come up out of the sea. She
kept hacking to and fro, and a widening compass, for
she was sailing dead into the wind. It never entered
my head to attempt to attract attention, and I do
not remember anything distinctly after the sight of her, until
(05:50):
I found myself in a little cabin aft. There's a
dim half memory of being lifted up to the gangway
and of a big round countenance, covered with freckles and
surrounded with red hair, staring at me over the bulwarks.
I also had a disconnected impression of a dark face
with extraordinary eyes close to mine, but that I thought
(06:14):
was a nightmare until I met it again. I fancy
I recollect some stuff being poured in between my teeth,
and that is all
One in the dinghy of the Lady Vain. I do
not propose to add anything to what has already been
written concerning the loss of the Lady Vain. As every
one knows, she collided with a derelict when ten days
out from Callao. The long boat with seven of the crew,
was picked up eighteen days after by ea chim gun
(00:21):
boat Myrtle, and the story of their terrible privations has
become quite as well known as the far more horrible
Medusa case. But I have to add to the published
story of the Lady Vain another, possibly as horrible and
far stranger, has hitherto been supposed that the four men
who are in the dinghy perished. But this is incorrect.
(00:44):
I have the best of evidence for this assertion. I
was one of the four men. But in the first place,
I must state that there were never four men in
the dinghy. The number was three. Constance, who was seen
by the captain to jump into the gar Daily News,
March seventeenth, eighteen eighty seven, luckily for us and unluckily
(01:06):
for himself, did not reach us. He came down out
of the tangle of ropes under the stays of the
smashed bowsprit. Some small rope caught his heel as he
let go, and he hung for a moment head downward,
and then fell and struck a block or spar floating
in the water. We pulled towards him, but he never
(01:27):
came up. I say, luckily for us, he did not
reach us, and I might almost say luckily for himself,
for he had only a small beaker of water and
some sodden ship's biscuits with us. So sudden had been
the alarm, so unprepared the ship for any disaster, we
thought the people on the launch would be better provisioned,
(01:48):
though it seems they were not, and we tried to
hail them. They could not have heard us, and the
next morning, when the drizzle cleared, which was not until
past midday, we could see nothing of them. We could
not stand up to look about us because of the
pitching of the boat. The two other men who had
escaped so far with me were a man named Helmar,
(02:11):
a passenger like myself, and a seaman whose name I
don't know, a short, sturdy man with a stammer. We
drifted famishing, and after our water had come to an end,
tormented by an intolerable thirst for eight days altogether. After
(02:31):
the second day the sea subsided slowly to a glassy calm.
It is quite possible for the ordinary reader to imagine
those eight days. He has not, luckily for himself anything
in his memory to imagine with. After the first day,
we said little to one another, and lay in our
places in the boat and stared at the horizon, or
(02:53):
watched with eyes that grew larger and more haggard every day,
the misery and weakness gaining upon our companions. The sun
became pitiless. The water ended on the fourth day, and
we were already thinking strange things in saying them with
our eyes. But it was I think the sixth before
(03:15):
Helmar gave voice to the thing we had all been thinking.
I remember our voices were dry and thin, so that
we bent towards one another and spared our words. I
stood out against it with all my might. Was rather
for scuttling the boat and perishing together among the sharks
that followed us. But when Helma said that if his
(03:37):
proposal was accepted, we should have drink, the sailor came
round to him. I would not draw lots. However, and
in the night the sailor whispered to Helmar again and again,
and I sat in the boughs with my clasp knife
in my hand, though I doubt if I had the
stuff in me to fight. And in the morning I
(03:57):
agreed to Helmar's proposal, and we had a half pinced
to find the odd man. The lot fell upon the sailor,
but he was the strongest of us, who would not
abide by it, and attacked Helmar with his hands. They
grappled together and almost stood up. I crawled along the
boat to them, intending to help Helmar by grasping the
(04:17):
sailor's legs, but the sailor stumbled with the swaying of
the boat, and the two fell upon the gunwale and
rolled overboard together. They sank like stones. I remember laughing
at that, and wondering why I laughed. The laugh caught
me suddenly, like a thing from without. I lay across
(04:41):
one of the thwarts for I know not how long,
thinking that if I had the strength, I would drink
sea water and mad myself to die quickly. And even
as I lay there, I saw, with no more interest
than if it had been a picture, a sail come
up towards me over the sky line. My mind must
have been wandering, and yet I remember all that happened
(05:04):
quite distinctly. I remember how my head swayed with the
seas and the horizon, with the sail above it danced
up and down. But I also remember as distinctly that
I had a persuasion that I was dead, and that
I thought what a jest it was that they should
come too late by such a little to catch me
in my body. For an endless period, as it seemed
(05:27):
to me, I lay with my head on the thwart,
watching the schooner. She was a little ship schooner rigged
fore and aft, come up out of the sea. She
kept hacking to and fro, and a widening compass, for
she was sailing dead into the wind. It never entered
my head to attempt to attract attention, and I do
not remember anything distinctly after the sight of her, until
(05:50):
I found myself in a little cabin aft. There's a
dim half memory of being lifted up to the gangway
and of a big round countenance, covered with freckles and
surrounded with red hair, staring at me over the bulwarks.
I also had a disconnected impression of a dark face
with extraordinary eyes close to mine, but that I thought
(06:14):
was a nightmare until I met it again. I fancy
I recollect some stuff being poured in between my teeth,
and that is all
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