Gainesville Daily Sun

DRIFTED 800 MILES.
Was For Period of Thirty Days at the Mercy of the Waves.

Seattle was advised of a dinghy that drifted miles at the mercy of the sea, covering a period of over thirty days, as told by Nee Quon, a Chinaman's boatswain, rescued from the wrecked steamer Marie Chan, in the Behring sea on the Alaska coast.

The Marie Chan encountered her first trouble about 300 miles off Cape Fairweather, when she suddenly sprang a leak. The pumps were interrupted by clogging, and for days the boat drifted, while the crew worked night and day with hand buckets to keep the ship afloat.

From Dec. 25 to Jan. 26 this work was kept up, and the engineers were soon able to use the upper boilers. Small headway was made, and the awnings were sewed together in a large sail. This gave almost enough headway for steerage room, but not sufficient to keep the Marie Chan from striking in Chatham straits in a northwest gale.

Thirty nine members of the crew succeeded in making the shore, where they lay for four days almost perishing in the cold, finally being rescued by the Georgia, and taken to Juneau. From Juneau the refugees were taken to this city, where they were not allowed to land.

Last night they left for Port Townsend on the steamer Idaho.