Abandon Ship!

And Don't Forget the Tobacco!
By Mr. M. Walker, President
Pipe-Up, Sixth & Seventh Congress, December 2012
In an abandoned brick 4-story in lovely OTR I recently discovered a cache of paper backs and one entitled True Stories of Courage and Survival, selected by the editors of The Saturday Evening Post  (15 copyrights 1938-1966). In that collection was an account titled "The Open Boat (26 pgs)" by Frank E. Croft.

On June 4, 1923 the British tramp SS Trevessa sank 1,700 miles from shore. She was loaded with zinc from Australia headed to South Africa. Within 15 minutes of first pitching forward in the water she was gone. Forty-four sailors henceforth coexisted in two 26ft wooden lifeboats, brutally overcrowded. "In less than 20 minutes they had provisioned the two starboard lifeboats with biscuits, condensed milk, and water. A quantity of cigarettes and tobacco was added; then the boats were lowered (p.7) - my bold."  In the end using sun and stars to navigate they landed on islands in Mauritius. One boat travelled 2,300 miles in 25 days -- one of the longest unbroken voyages in an open boat on record!

But let's return to the tobacco.
 "The total food supply, including the lifeboat's regular stores, was 2 breakers of water (9 gallons), 6 tins of biscuits and 130 tins of condensed milk. Each boat had more than 2,000 cigarettes and about 10 lbs of tobacco. The total of safety matches was about a dozen boxes (p.10) ." The men were intermittently baked and soaked by the elements, frozen then roasted. The daily rationing of water dwindled pathetically from one full tablespoon to half that amount in the final days.

The SS Trevessa was carrying zinc concentrates.

"Twenty-four men in a 26 foot boat, they were jammed together like bleacherites at a ball game. To take a match box or pipe from a pocket required a minor act of contortion. Backs and hips seemed pierced with needles. Legs and arms were stiff and sore. They were hungry, with a hunger which stabbed at their bellies in its first flush of anger. Above all, they were thirsty. They tried to ignore hunger and thirst by smoking, and partially succeeded. Smoking, strangely, did not increase thirst, but allayed it (p.11)."

From time to time I have wondered about the effect smoking has on thirst.  As a land-locked Hoosier boy in the 60's-70's growing up in rural southern Indiana I watched quarry workers blast and cut multi-ton stone blocks. It was all a big heap of dust and sweat. At break time these men white with limestone and lips parched would pull out pipes and cigarettes - before they received their cups of water, implying the tobacco was more important. You could chalk it up to addiction, but I think there is more to it.

The Trevessa was wrecked 1,640 miles west of Fremantle,
one lifeboat made it to Bel-Hombre, the other to
Rodriguez Island. One boat travelled 2,300 miles
in 25 days—One of the longest on record.

"The cigarettes and tobacco were an inestimable boon. They provided a comfort which the survivors afterward said was valued more than food. It was noteworthy that two nonsmokers acquired the habit after the first week, when they saw their fellows deriving so much satisfaction from it. (p.23)." Ten died but though on average 30 pounds lighter miraculously 34 of the 44 sailors survived, over 3 weeks in the open sea. Could tobacco have played a key role in their survival?  We may never know.

Try pursuing a grant today for a study designed to show anything positive coming from tobacco smoking?!  You'd be escorted to an institution. What is clear is in 1923 for the men of the SS Trevessa  smoking pipes and cigarettes was essential to their endurance and to their survival.  Think about it.  In a fast sinking ship you have 20 minutes to provision your life boat, to be stuffed with humanity, what do you include?  In those days on a par with water, biscuits, and condensed milk it was a couple thousand cigarettes and pounds of tobacco!  Today what, twinkies and cell phones? 

So if a cruise is in your future you may consider swinging by Strauss along the way to stock up on provisions.  Who knows, the way cruise ships founder these days you may have just saved your life.

Master mariner Cecil Foster of the Hain Line steamer Trevessa was personally credited with having led over three quarters of his crew to safety. Foster learned survival lessons from his experiences in World War I.

90 years ago he became an overnight celebrity. There were newsreel appearances, a best-selling book and even an audience with King George V.   He died aged 40 in 1930.