Wooden ship "SS Dumaru".
At the beginning of the last century, when the American wooden ship "SS Dumaru" was struck by lightning and sank near Guam, its crew was left adrift on a lifeboat for three weeks. When the food on the lifeboats ran out, they began to kill each other and cannibalize themselves.
In 1918, a wooden ship called the "SS Dumaru" began its first voyage. Unfortunately, the first voyage turned into its last, and on October 16, the ship was struck by lightning, the flammable cargo on board caught fire, and the crew survived in three different lifeboats, but their troubles were just beginning.
One lifeboat carrying five survivors of the SS Dumaru arrived safely on shore after only nine days, while the other two lifeboats were adrift at sea for more than three weeks. The capacity of one of the lifeboats far exceeded its carrying capacity, and the situation quickly turned bad as the supply of food and water decreased. When they were rescued, only 14 people on board survived, from the original 32 people.
Back on land, the remaining crew members agree to keep a crucial bit of their survival story under wraps. Years later, one of the crew members finally reveals how the 14 of them really survived: after the men ran out of food, they resorted to cannibalism, eating the bodies of some people who had died of dehydration from the sun.
What is the wooden ship "SS Dumaru".
Aerial view of the U.S. Navy base in Apra Harbor, Guam, 17 nautical miles (about 32 kilometers) from the sinking of the wooden ship SS Dumaru, 2006
The "SS Dumaru" was a 1,752-ton American wooden steamer, as described in an article in Oregon Sunday in 1918.
According to the Connecticut Observer, it was an 82-meter Hough-type wooden steamship, poorly built and operated by the Grant Smith-Porter Boat Company. In fact, when the wooden ship "SS Dumaru" was launched in the city of Portland on April 17, 1918, it fell into the sea so fast that it crashed into several houseboats on the Willamette River, which some crew members believed to be a harbinger of impending disaster.
Nevertheless, the ship made its first voyage that year. In September 1918, the ship, captained by Ole Berrensen, sailed from the city of San Francisco and stopped in Hawaii for Guam.
It is important to note that the ship was built primarily of wood, and its cargo included gasoline in the bow, explosives in the aft compartment, and other ammunition, all of which are highly flammable materials that could lead to a potential safety hazard for a single exploding voyage.
On October 16, the wooden ship "SS Dumaru" left the port of Apra, Guam, and sailed for Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It was on the last leg of the voyage that disaster really struck.
The sinking of the wooden ship "SS Dumaru".
The geographical location of the U.S. island of Guam and Manila, the capital of the Philippines
On that fateful day, when the wooden ship "SS Dumaru" sailed out of Guam, a large number of storm clouds had gathered overhead the crew. It didn't take long for the storm to hit, and when the ship was only about 17 nautical miles (about 32 kilometers) off the coast of Guam, lightning struck the ship's wooden deck, setting off a chain reaction that ignited and exploded the ship's highly flammable cargo. In a 1919 issue of the magazine New Age of Technology, one of the ship's survivors, Theron Brown, was asked to write about the ship's new era. Theron W. Bean writes: Lightning ignited the gasoline on the ship, and a few seconds later the entire front of the ship caught fire.
The order to abandon ship was issued. Theron wrote that he sent out the distress signal when the crew rushed onto the ship's three lifeboats, a small rubber liferaft and two lifeboats.
In a panic, the crew was not evenly distributed on the ship. When one of the two lifeboats left, there were only 9 people in 20 seats. The other, which Theron had the misfortune to join, was stuffed. When Theron signaled for help, jumped into the water, and swam to the lifeboat, there were already 31 people on it.
At this point, the three lifeboats separated, each of which was to sail for the return voyage to land.
On October 26, The Oregon Sunday reported that Captain Oller, his second mate, and three crew members were safely found and rescued by a transport ship just nine days after the ship sank. The other lifeboats are still missing and will remain at sea for another two weeks. The nine men on the understaffed lifeboat would have landed safely, but Theron's 32-man lifeboat was not so lucky.
The miserable voyage of an overcrowded lifeboat
Illustration from an article about their lifeboat by Survivor Theron published in the 1919 issue of the journal New Age of Technology
In Theron's article, he shares a thrilling survival story of 32 people in his lifeboat struggling to survive at sea.
Theron writes that when their lifeboat was launched, the men watched from a distance as the wooden ship "SS Dumaru" sank into the sea. They slashed and kept paddling. By morning, Guam was in sight, but the change in wind direction and strong currents caused the lifeboats to tragically deviate from course.
Soon, another steamer came from a distance, and the hope of rescue came. The crew of the lifeboat waved and shouted wildly, trying to signal the ship to stop, but to no avail. The steamer kept its course unchanged and passed right past these crews.
They waited and waited, waiting for the wind to turn in their favor, or waiting to see another ship appear, but the situation became more and more critical. Their rations were small, with only two tablespoons of fresh water and a hard biscuit a day.
A week later, the crew, in a weakened state, gave up rowing and was thrown overboard.
About two weeks later, the crew began to die quickly from dehydration from the sun, and by the 17th day they had run out of their rations of hard bread and the sky was still not raining.
Due to thirst, some people desperately drank seawater and soon died. Others use their shoes, oars and sides to evaporate the seawater, lighting fires and separating the toxic components of the water from the water, but even then each person can only take a small sip of water.
A real view of Guam taken by satellite
Finally, Bean writes that they managed to catch several dolphins using a fishing rod as a fishing tool. This meal, and the water they get from the dolphins, gives these hungry people a temporary relief.
On the 24th day, the lifeboat finally approached land. For the first time in weeks, these people felt hope as the Philippine coast got closer, but first, they had to break through the raging waves to reach the beach.
In the rough waves, the lifeboats capsized, throwing these people onto the reef, where they were cut by the rough corals and tossed around by the huge waves. After that, two more people died in this final struggle.
The men sailed 1043 nautical miles (about 1931 km) on the high seas and finally reached the Philippines, where they were welcomed and rescued, but for many of them it was too late. The lifeboats set off carrying 32 people, and in the end only 14 survived.
What Theron does not mention in his account is what happened to the bodies of those who died at sea.
Years after the incident, a shocking report revealed the horrific phenomenon of cannibalism by hungry people on the way to the lifeboat "SS Dumaru", which was stuffed with food, and some of whom had eaten the bodies of some who had died from the sun.
Cannibal report on the lifeboat "SS Dumaru".
A 1918 newspaper clipping from the Adelaide Chronicle detailed the arrival of 14 survivors of the SS Dumaru's lifeboat
For many years, the survivors of the "SS Dumaru" did not mention cannibalism when sharing their survival stories. Later, in 1930, the American journalist Lowell Thomas published a book about the sinking of the wooden ship "SS Dumaru" entitled "The wreck of the "SS Dumaru": a cannibal story.
According to the New York Times, Fred Harmon, a former assistant engineer on the SS Dumaru, was one of the 14 survivors of the overcrowded lifeboat told Lowell the story.
The New York Times writes that a version of this terrible story that Lowell obtained for his book also appears in the records of the Philippine Navy at the time of the incident.
According to these records, four people died on the lifeboat on the eighteenth day. The first of these was the Engineer, who had previously told the rest of the crew that when he died, everyone should eat his corpse to feed their hunger.
So everyone did so, and they cooked the meat in kerosene jars. They reportedly said it tasted good because the human flesh absorbed the salt from the seawater and everyone seemed to feel better. Fearing that the salt would poison them, they ended up putting the salt aside. The next day they ate more, and this time, the salt made everyone feel sick and crazy.
But according to Fred's recollections, the idea of eating human flesh came from a renegade Greek crew member named "George".
Mutiny on a lifeboat
Survivor of the wooden ship "SS Dumaru".
Lowell relayed Fred's account of the events, where he wrote that the Greek crew member "George" led several hungry lifeboat crews in a rebellion. Allegedly, "George" brandished an ax and demanded that they eat those who died from sun exposure. When some of the others refused, "George" got angry and shouted, "We're all dying, Chief Cook, I'll do it now." ”
Allegedly, with the encouragement of the first mate of the "SS Dumaru", "George" was in contact with Lieutenant E. Murray. E.V. Holmes, after discussing whether it was safe to do so, did prepare the corpses for the crew to consume.
According to Lowell, Fred said: "The lieutenant ordered the Greeks to put a small piece of meat in the barrel of a wooden boat, shaped like a large sugar spoon, and wash it in the sea. Later, the barrels were distributed to everyone. ”
"'George' ate it first, then handed the bowl and handed the meat to Holmes, who took the meat and ate it, thus showing the rest of us that he wanted us to do the same," Fred said. We ourselves embraced George's idea, and we decided to continue to follow the Greek's example. ”
Although they were initially frightened by the idea of eating the corpses of their companions on the same ship, they eventually agreed to do so. One of the crew members said: "This is the only possible way to save our lives, and for our dead companions, it is not much worse than the fate of being eaten by sharks." "Allegedly, after eating the engineer's body, they also ate a Hawaiian cafeteria boy.
According to the Connecticut Observer, after the book was published in 1930, survivors admitted to succumbing to cannibalism in order to survive.
The story was shocking enough, but the Connecticut Observer also reported: "Speculation persists about several alleged suicides in which some jumped ship to become food for sharks rather than risk being eaten by their peers." There are also terrible, unsubstantiated rumors that were drawn before an unfortunate engineer and Hawaiian cafeteria boy were killed, cooked, and eaten. ”
Unfortunately, if it weren't for the change in the direction of the wind, or if it weren't for the passing steamer not noticing the little lifeboat and reaching out, perhaps, this terrible and tragic story could have been avoided.