Uncle Albert Shipwrecked
Esther Westlund Title: Uncle Albert Shipwrecked Storyteller: Esther Westlund Language: English Date of Telling: 2016-03-29 Location of Telling: Spokane, Washington Duration of Story: 04:55 Source of Story: Family Location of Story: South Pacific Subject Headings: Survival Notes: |
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Well as time went on, Albert was on a mission in the south seas of the Pacific and there was a terrific storm. The ship was torn apart and Uncle Albert did not know the results of the shipwreck, except he and two others were washed ashore. On a little island, there was no one on it, it was sterile. They rescued as much stuff as they could from the ship that washed ashore in case they would need it. But there was no food. They would catch a fish once in awhile when it came up and he said, “We were so hungry, we just ate it raw.”
Then they wondered, maybe somebody would come by but no one ever did. So they had two choices, they could stay on the island and wait for a rescue which did not look very possible. Or they could build a raft and sail, hoping to come to an island. So these seamen had learned to sail from the stars. They got together night after night after night, plotting and planning where are we? We are here, they decided. We know that there should be another island that people live on over this way. According to the stars that is right.
They got their raft going. They were at sea for days and they were so hungry. If a fish jumped aboard they ate it, of course. Otherwise they took their leather shoelaces off and chewed on them just to survive. Then Uncle Albert and the two others survived for awhile. When the third man died they put him to sea. Gave him a sailor’s - I don’t know what you call it, that is what they did when a sailor died. And they were washed up on an island. When Albert came to, he was lying on the seashore, his head in the lap of some native woman, and she was trying to feed him soup. The minute he saw that soup, he wanted to drink the whole thing at once which was not the thing to do when you are that hungry. So she put spoon by spoon and fed him, until he got strong enough. And he was put into some kind of a hospital where he regained his strength.
Then he learned that there was another ship on the way to this island to let off some supplies. And this island where he was rescued was on the way to United States. He started dreaming, when he got out of that hospital and was well again, “I am going to join that ship’s crew.” So he was sure to thank the lady that saved his life. He went to the Captain of the ship and joined up. It was a merchant ship.
“Yes we are headed for San Francisco.” So Uncle Albert joined and they docked at San Francisco.
Uncle Albert said, “I just walked off that ship and tried to melt in with all the other refugees.” They had a lot of orientals that had come across on a kind of a work lease. He melted into the society.
Then they wondered, maybe somebody would come by but no one ever did. So they had two choices, they could stay on the island and wait for a rescue which did not look very possible. Or they could build a raft and sail, hoping to come to an island. So these seamen had learned to sail from the stars. They got together night after night after night, plotting and planning where are we? We are here, they decided. We know that there should be another island that people live on over this way. According to the stars that is right.
They got their raft going. They were at sea for days and they were so hungry. If a fish jumped aboard they ate it, of course. Otherwise they took their leather shoelaces off and chewed on them just to survive. Then Uncle Albert and the two others survived for awhile. When the third man died they put him to sea. Gave him a sailor’s - I don’t know what you call it, that is what they did when a sailor died. And they were washed up on an island. When Albert came to, he was lying on the seashore, his head in the lap of some native woman, and she was trying to feed him soup. The minute he saw that soup, he wanted to drink the whole thing at once which was not the thing to do when you are that hungry. So she put spoon by spoon and fed him, until he got strong enough. And he was put into some kind of a hospital where he regained his strength.
Then he learned that there was another ship on the way to this island to let off some supplies. And this island where he was rescued was on the way to United States. He started dreaming, when he got out of that hospital and was well again, “I am going to join that ship’s crew.” So he was sure to thank the lady that saved his life. He went to the Captain of the ship and joined up. It was a merchant ship.
“Yes we are headed for San Francisco.” So Uncle Albert joined and they docked at San Francisco.
Uncle Albert said, “I just walked off that ship and tried to melt in with all the other refugees.” They had a lot of orientals that had come across on a kind of a work lease. He melted into the society.