I "With great difficulty my grandfather 

 I persuaded five of ttie remaining rwen to 

 accompany him in the jolly hoat. They 

 rowed out into the path of trans-At- 

 lantic shipping in search of help. There 

 was hardly anything- to drink on the 

 Margaret, and an inadequate supply ot 

 salt meat for food. 



Just Around the Corner 



"The flvs men were 23 days on the eea 

 in that open ooat in the month of No- 

 j vember. They hecame too weak to row. 

 Finally, Larcom and the others, given 

 strength by desperation, ripped a plank 

 from the bottom ot the boat and stuck 

 It up in the bow with a shirt flying from 

 the top. They were then sighted and 

 picked up in such weakened condition 

 I that they had to be carried aboard the 

 ! rescuing vessel." 



Mr Abbot is one ot the oldest living 

 Harvard men, but not the oldest. That 

 distinction belongs to George Augustus 

 Peabody of Danvers, class of 1852. 



If Edwin H. Abbot's older brother, 

 Brig Gen Henry Larcom Abbot, who la 

 94 and lives around the corner from the 

 "castle" at 23 Berkeley st, Cambridga. 

 had not been diverted from iioston 

 Latin School to West Point, he would 

 doubtless have matriculated at Harvard, 

 I and as Gen Abbot is 10 (^ays older than 

 [ George Augustus Peabody, he would, in 

 \ that event, be the oldest living Harvard 

 I graduate. Instead, he has become the 

 oldest surviving graduate of West 

 I Point, and the last of the Civil War 

 I officers. 



Gen Abbot lives with two daughters, 

 the Misses Marian S', and Elinor E. Ab. 

 bot. 



Fought Against Classmates 



Made a second lieutenant, topogra- 

 phical engineers, in 1854, the Cambridga 

 man had a distinguished record in the 

 Civil War. Ha was cited for numerdua 

 acts of bravery. He had the agonizing 

 ! experience of Hghting against Custia 

 i Lee and other of his West Point class- 

 i mates. He was Colonel of the 1st Con- 

 I neoticut Artillery durlne ttie war, and 

 i was brBVted Brigadier General in 1865. 

 i Following the war. Gen Abbot en- 

 j tered upon a brilliant career as a mill- 

 I tdry engineer. He designed the first sys- 

 tem of submarine defense adopted by 

 ; the Government and was a member of 

 i the board ot consulting engineers for the 

 Panama Canal. He was retired with 

 the rank of brigadier genoFal in 1904, 

 and for six years following his retire- 

 ment served as professor of hydraulic 

 engineering at George Washington Uni- 

 versity. He has been a prolific writer 

 'on engineering and otlier subjects. 



.Tospph Hale Abbot, the father of Ed- 

 win H. Abbot and of Gen Henry Lar- 

 com Abbot, was a teacher at Phillips 

 Exeter and at Bowdoin College, a pro- 

 fession to which both sons have ad- 

 dressed themselves at various times 

 during their long and eventful lives— 

 when they were not engaged In more 

 mantle and active pursuits. j 



