Jasper Banner, Volume 2, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1855 — "The Pilot’s Story. [ARTICLE]

"The Pilot’s Story.

It was four years ago last March, as we were cruising oft’ the Cape, having run over the Hamton Road, just after a hard blow from the eastward was over us, and the breeze hadsprungup from the wtstwanL. We were running out under jib and mainsail, when, early in 'Hie morning we made something on the weather bow which looked like a wreck, which we knew in reason couldn’t be; but there being no sail in sight, and, as we had plenty of time, we lulled up to see what it was. ThaVsw’hatpeopleought always to do, whether they have time ornot. — God knows how many a poor fellow has stood alone on a wreck when a vessel has passed in plain sight, sup■posingit to be abandoned after that vessel had passed on, and the agony . of despair endured by that poor soul, as the sail disappeared in the horizon, was a balance in the scale of human joy, and woe to all the happiness. those cruel, careless deserters could ever know. Oh! I wish that people could think es this, for what as the satisfaction of a few hours shorter passage, to that of rescuing a fallow creature, or of having the will to do sevdhsm a miserable death. Yas,a man who from such motives even should it prove that .there is no one on board of her-, canfiHaWay his maihtopsail again > Wh k feeling of greater sa|jsfaction to himself for haying done ibis duty, than if the wodd had conhfaiupon hw»gnaade Jfte passage or the nuwi profitable However, as we hauled our wind, W »«ing :®utfpf the-way of our cruise.—Pretty koon-we maddft outfit was a »*“««el4»®ttoui a?p; and might be of a hundredapd fifty ta# [W * 80 . ghe was .thatWecbuld -par-; Ocular, but as., tfic sea ' - ' . ■ -• • •

we launched <mr cattnd and went alongside, and some of u>got upon the vewel’e bottom. Thfalc of our surprise on’hearing some one knocking. from the inside! *At firtjt we thought it might be some of the cargo floating abfiwt as we heard indistinctly, but bdrely, a human voice. Instantly returning to the boat, we procured the few tools that were on boards an al > hatchet, and a saw, and commended cutting a hole near the larboard, but in our haste the ax went overboaM upon the first blow, and Whs lost, and this carelessness, how bitterly was it afterwards repented of. Well, we worked away with the hatchet and saw, so that in a few moments we made a hole in the plank under which we heard the noise, large enough for a person to show his face, and for us to hear from below the shouts of joy of those who hailed us as their deliverers.— Never were men destined to the disappointment as those poor wretches were. For a few moments they gave themselves up to the delirium of joy, and then—when the awful truth dawned upon them, that we, instead of saving them, were sending them to a more speedy destruction —there came a contrast that no pen can describe, nor ‘ tongue can tell. The hole which we had made though not large enough to extricate a man, allowed the air which had kept the vessel afloat, to escape, and to out horror, we .flaw that the vessel was every minute sinking, we ourselves coming near the surface of the water. We worked with the hatchet and the saw with all the energy men are capable of, but could only cut the plank. In vain we hacked with our little hatchet upon the timber of the schooner. Our ax! we would have given the world for it nowjit might have saved them. But soon they as well as ourselves began to preceive i that all our exertions were useless, iarfd they crowded to the small aperi lures we had made, putting through their hands, and seizing ours with convulsive grasps. They cursed the light that had broken upon them the sooner to shroud them in eternal darkness, and then they vehemently implored forgiveness. Amidst this confusion, the captain of the schooner made for the opening, and arresting the disorder from beneath, asked of us in a cool* manner and perfectly calm voice, how much of the hull seemed yet to be out of water. We told him, and then heard him communicating the information to those below, and give his orders to mantain silent, while he related to us his story, which was necessarily short. They were from an eastern port, bound to Charleston, nearly, in htallast."~WEeti~fopy ~\vere capsized in thelatogale, twomeuwere dost; but most of thorn being below, as the schooner was lying to,they were able, upon, her going bottom up, to get through the run scuttle in the bole. The confined air had held the vessel up till ngw; but they despaired of succour, knowing how improbable it was that the wreck should be seen, or if seen that any one would search for them. Thus they had been for four days, having found sufficient provisions for subsistence, but without expectation of release, they had resigned themselves to a fate that seemed inevitable. But when they neanl the sound of our footsteps, then they thought their preservation sure —but now their disappointment was the frenzy of despair. But the captain was the man!— There he hung on by the floor timbers, told his story—gave his name, and the names of his crew, hade us good-by, and in a firm voice, which only faltered as he gave his last message to his wife and children. ‘•Put your hand through’’ he said to one of us, “and let me kiss it.— When upon shore go to my home, and Jet my dear wife put her lips to the same spot. Tell her it is all I can send her from here, but that my last breath shall be a prayer to God for her and her little one! And now good-by, my kind friends, you have done all you could do for, us, God vyAJI reward you—look to your own safety.” ..It. wartime, indeed, lest wr canoc should be swallowed up m foe vertex «0k«»S vessel, and, with fcelingstowhich nothing of wretchedness Cgn compare, we ihoveilMlQlfofr T‘ l ?t hpatii. ■ ■ * In, a moment w wreck went <k wu {

and the last vestige of those it contained was the arm of the noble hearted master, as it seemed to wave Un adieu to us, and to all-.things 4T earth.