Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1887 — A STORY OF THE SEA. [ARTICLE]

A STORY OF THE SEA.

N. Y. Sun. One of the most hopeless situations in which men, women and children can be placed is in case of fire or wreck on the ocean, and I have witnessed many examples of it in my fifteen years at sea. A few lines in a newspaper the other day recalled to mind the incident^connected with the loss of the Empress,a British ship bound to Australia,with nearly two hundred pefiple. • , It was an hour after noon of a fine, clear day in summer, and the Captain had just figured out the position of the ‘ ship as due west of Melbourne 480 miles, when there was an explosion in the forecastle, followed at once by smoke and flame, and a half dozen sai lore, all more or less badly burned, tumbled up the ladder with shouts of fire. What

| brought about the explosion we never knew, as there was no time to ask questions while the ship was in danger, and in a couple of hours we were separated forever. 1 was third mate of the Empresa, and I assisted the last man up the ladder and closed the scuttle behind him to smother the flames until we could get ready to fight them. In spite of our being a sailing vessel, with only hand pumps to fight the fire, and of our having a mixed passenger list, it would have made you proud to see how gallantly we went to work after the first shiver of confusion had come and gone, i We laid the hose, manned the pumps, and soon got two or three, Streams of■ water into the forecastle. There was a fair breeze and, a moder-' ate sea, and while a part of the crew, 1 assisted by a number of willing passen-’ gers, worked the pumps, the others j kept the ship on her course. I was cer- [ tain at first that we should conquer the j fire, but at the end of an hour I had to ’ report to the captain that the flames ■ were gaining on us. They had worked ■ into the fore peak among the paints, oils 1 and pitch stored there, and though we pumped in enough water to float a hotife off its foundation we made no impression on the flames. When I bad i reported this fact the captain quietly j said: “Mr. Johnson, I’m afraid the ship! must go. Let the carpenter take your j place forward, and do vou at once set' about getting the boats in shape. We ' can hold the fire for half an hour or more, and that will give you time to put in water and provisions.”

I called the steward and one of the cooks and a common sailor to my aid. Our boats were in good shape as to oars and sails. The sailor and the cook attended to the water kegs, while the steward and myself brought up the provisions and other things. We had boat room for every soul on board, and the only fear was that the people might get in a frenzy at the last. We had passengers of all sorts, and some of them would be made desperate by fear. We did- not seem to hurry ourselves in getting the boats ready, but in less than half an hour we had every one ready for launching. Each boat had water and provisions for ten days for its completement, and we put in some clothing, wine, fishing-tackle, spare sails, Ac. In the boat which I was to have charge of 1 placed my revolver and "a box of cartridges, and later on, a musket and a lot of blank cartridges for firing s ; gnals. I personally inspected each keg of water to see that it was fresh, and I looked into every boat to see that the mast and sail and oars were there. When I reported to the captain again he replied: ‘’Very well. Quietly call some of the men and we will launch the boats.” I got eight or ten men together, some passengers and some sailors, and while we were getting the quarter-boats oyer and alongside, the 3rst mate and a few sailors got the long-boat off her chocks and over the rail. Now it was that the passengers began to'exhibit signs of panic. They were all on deck, you understand, some praying and weeping, some sullen and silent, but all ready to rush up to destruction, likeaflockof sheep, as soon as a leader could be found. The leader was found when the flames finally burst through the decks and a scream went up from a hundred throats He was a Liverpool rough—a burly, big fellow, who was going out to Australia as a champion wrestler and fighter. He had worked like a hero at the pumps and had done much to encourage others, but when he saw the ship was doomed he turned cur and threw up his hands and shouted: “Rush for the boats; we shall all be blown sky high!”

There would have been a rush and a great loss of life but for the captain. He made two or three jumps to reach the fellow, knocked him flat on his broad back by a powerful blow, and then said calmly to the people:", “My friends, there is no hurry. We shall now take in all sail and put the ship off before the wind. This will keep the fire forward for a long time yet. We have no powder aboard, and if you will obey orders no person will be lest We are only fifty miles from land and every ooat will reach it before noon to morrow.” He fibbed about the distance, but that was justified under the circumstances. Orders were given to take in all sail and get the ship off before the wind, and when that had been accomplished the moment of peril was at hand. Each officer armed himself with a belaying-pin and stood at the rail, and the captain told off for the boats. We had six boats for the crowd. The first one loaded was put in qharge of the carpenter, the next in charge of the boatswain; the next was mipe. Once or twice, as we were getting the first boat away, there was a rush by frightened men, but we heat them back, and afterward there was no trouble. The people came up to be counted off, women and childr. n first, and it would have made our heart ache to denote their looks. Grim despair had settled down on every countenance. Every face was ashy pale, lips blue, and not one in a dozen could utter a wordjSome of the women started straight before them, as if fascinated by a horrible sight, and some of the men shook as if with a chill when they went over the .rail., . When I finally got away from the side of the burning craft I had nineteen peo-

1 pie in a boat which could not comfortably carry over thirteen. However, as their were eight women and five children in the crowd, it left us buoyant enough. Of the six men of, us I had only one sailor. t Of the four others one was the rough knocked down by the captain, a second waa a spectacled professor of botany, and the third and fourth were young men going out to join mercantile houses. I ran the boat oft to windward of the ship, which was drifting slowly, and then arranged my people accoding to my notion. The | rough was sent to the bow of the boat! I Next to him came the two young men. II had the water and provisions placed in , the stern, and tne sailor had his place 1 where he could relieve me st the helm, j Then I stood up to say a few words. 1 1 told them we were near land, had a safe j boat, and plenty to eat and drink, and [ that it was only a question of a few hours when we should sight the great island. Up to this timfe not one of my passengers had spoken a word. Everybody was pale* faced and dumb. After 1 sat down, however, the rough started 10 cheer, in which four or five others faintly joined, and some of the women began to talk in an encouraging way among themselves. I gave each one a kind word, and by the time we were all settled down the captain’s boat was pulling away from the ship, and the fire had worked its way back almost to the stern. It was a sorrowful sight, sir, to see the noble ship going to her destruction in that way, and the change which and hour had made was hard to be realized. To be hurried from the stout decks of a big ship into a small boat is to give up for the time being all your feelling of security. You are so close to the water that your feeling of peril is increased, and the movement of the small boat is so responsive to the slighest swell than even a good sailor is unmanned by the change. Indeed, sir, an officer though I was, and trying very hard to be cool and hopeful, when we were heaved up on a sea, and I thought of Australia being so far away, and the perils of the ocean so numerous, I felt like crying with the children.

The Captain had given each one of us the true course to steer as we left the ship, and each boat had been provided with a lantern to bang out at night. His boat and that of the first mate had Compasses. I was provided with a pocket compass, while the other three boats had none. However the idea was to keep in sight of each other, and had this been done perhaps all would have gone well. Some of the boats sailed faster than others, and. as the Captain had arranged for no signals, not more than two hours had passed before the boats of the two other mates were almost out of sight ahead. The carpenter could not lie as close to the wind as the rest of us, and he was making a bad drift to leeward. The boatswain either lacked the nerve to crack on sail or else his boat was overloaded and sluggish. He was a mile in my wake, and I was on the captain’s beam, to windward and a quarter of a mile away. This was about the position three hours after the fire broke out, and two hours after we had taken to the boats. The ship had burned to the water’s edge and was ready to sink as she drifted off before the wind. We noticed the Captain making signals, and when we run down to him we found his boat crowded, but all the occupants hopeful. He asked me if I had the course, how my people were feeling, and then advised that I shorten sail so as not to outrun the carpenter and boatswain. I acted upon the suggestion at once by taking a reef in the sail, and as the Captain’s boat gradually forged ahead of us his people gave us a cheer and had it sent back to them. The weather was now looking threatening, with the sea getting up pretty fast, and as the wind was almost due east x let the boat fall off a couple of points to ease her jumping and keep the pray off the psop'e. Trie boatswain was now gaining on me slowly, and I was creeping down on the carpenter. Half an hour should have brought the three of us together, blit we were never to bear each other’s' voices again. Our boat was making tolerably good weather of it, and the people getting accustomed to the wild movement, when the rough suddenly threw up his hands and cried "Great God! but the carpenter’s boat has capsized! We are all done for unless we run off before the wind!” He rose up and started to come aft, as if he would take charge, but I kept him back by threats to brain him, and he finally cowered down in the bottom of the boat and moaned and lamented like a child. His conduct had greatly upset the other people, and it was five or ten minutes before I could silence them. I am sorry to have to tell vou. sir. that I was obliged to use very vigorous language and to exhibit my revolver and threaten to use it. While the rough was the worst one in the lot the Professor was not far behind him, and one of the young men held a naked knife in his hand, as if he expected to have to fight me for his life. It was only after I had quieted the people that I could look for the carpenter’s boat Nothing was to be seen of it, but when I had left my craft fall off a. Jittle more and run a quarter of a mile further we all caught sight of the capsized craft. There had been from fourteen to sixteen people in her, and every soul had gone down. We saw one hat afloat, but hot anothensign, although I sailed clear around the boat.

! The boatswain should have been cloee upon me by the time we set our course again, but when I looked around for him I saw that he had put his craft,oft before the wind, and was now running off into the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean at a lively rate. It was an act of the barest follyj but it may have been that his people advised it and that he hadn’t the nerve to stand out. He had at least nine men in his boat, all landsmen, and they may have threatened his life or taken forcible possession of the tiller, I alone knew of this manceuvre, and I determined to say nothing to any of the people. I whispered to the sailor to creep forward and look for the Captain’s boat’ for the weather was now thickening up and much spray flying. He took my pocket glasses and after a long time made her out dead ahead," but only a speck among the foam. She had outrun us rapidly, and could know nothing of what had happened to the other boats.

I will tell you here that the boatswain’s craft was never heard of more. The Captain’s boat, containing a starved and emaciated woman, was picked up by a coaster ninety miles to the west of Tasmania, two weeks after the wreck. She died without speaking, and what became of the other people can only be surmised. The first mate broke his compass, and held his course so high that he was picked up lofi miles to the west of Perth, with five of his people dead from exposure. The second mate carried his boat ashore 100 miles to the west of Adelaide, losing four people. As ; to the fate of my boat I shall give you more particulars. I was under general orders to keep the captain’s boat in sight and to hold to the north-east, and I shook the reef out of the sail and held the boat up on her true course, hoping to sight the captain’s boat before dark. We never saw it again, however. As the afternoon wore away the weather grew thicker, and at about sunset I counselled with the sailor, and we decided that we must lie to. Most of the people in the boat had been dreadfully sick for the last hour or two, and one or two of the children were in a sort of stupor. The sailor was a veteran, named Manning, and his ideas on the matter of lying to and drifting it out agreed with mine.

“You see, sir,” he explained, “we are now several points off our course, and making as much drift as headway, and before we are two hours older we are going to see more wind. We must put her head to4t and ride it out.” He lashed the oars together to make a drag, and, as a further precaution, he made a second one out of a piece of plank and a bit of spar, which stuff had accidentally been left in the boat by the carpenter while making repairs. When both were over we rode like a duck, without a sprinkle of water coming aboard. .Then 1 resigned my seat to rouse up the people and put them in shape for the night. I poured some wine into a pannikin and insisted upon everybody taking a sip. The rough was still groveling in the bottom of the boat, and nothing I could say or do would rouse him up. One of the young men was all right, his courage having returned, but the other cowered down,the naked knife held in his hand, and so threatened me that I did not disturb him. When all had drank of the wine —or all but the two—l shifted them about until they were in more comfortable positions, and then served outsome food. Life and hope came back, and when the angry sun went to his ocean bed I had the feeling that we might pull through without losing a soul. That was a terribly long night, and a thousand different times during the long hours I thought our time had come. The wind blew a howling gale, the sea got up mountain high, and as I look back on the perils it seems to me nothing but the outstretched hand of God prevented our destruction. There were not many times when we went into the great hollows that morning that we did not clutch each other and believe that the last moment had come. It was a mercy that the others were terrified into a stupor that prevented them from realizing the situation. It was sunrise next morning before the gale broke, and nearly noon before we pulled in our drags and hoisted sail. At sunrise I served .wine and crackers again, and was rejoiced to find all alive, and most of them in good heart. The prize fighter had not moved from his place, and the young man with the knife now had the desperate, worried look of a hunted beast. I made a great effort to arouse the big fellow, giving him many a vigorous kick before he moved. He finally scrambled up in a great fury, but instead of turning on me, as might have been expected, he rushed upon the man with the knife. There was a. struggle, several - shouts and screams, and then the big fellow, bleeding from two or three stabs, lifted the other in his arms and went overboard. The boat was being tossed about in the wildest manner, and none of us would have dared to shift our positions to interfere. There was a scream from the women and children as the two went over, and that was eulogy and requiem combined. I insisted upon their takingfood and water and shifting about, and the affair was seemingly forgotten by Hffi" except the Professor. He had been dumb for hours, but after forcing him to eat he suddenly began to sing and chatter, and we all soon realized

that his mind was gone. The young man in the bow of the boat volun- , leered to take charge of the poor gen-'! . tieman, and I cautioned him to tie the | j Professor’s feet. I By noon the weather had grown > pleasant and the sea moderately calm,; 1 and then for the first time the people j ! moved about and felt of themselves/ I served out a hearty dinner to all, and ■ by guesses and predictions put the ! little crowd in good humors The worn- ! en washed their faces and combed their . hair, the fretting children were duly j cared for, and we dashed along to j Australia at an exhi'arating speed. Il was in hopes the Professor would mend, i but soon afte# dinner he went into | spasms and then lay for hours tin a | stupor. We had removed the lashings | in order to rub his limbs, and about an hour before sunset, without having given us the least warning, he sprang up and flung himself overboard. A monster shark bad been following us for a couple of hours, unknown to all aboard except myself. The poor man had not sunk two feet deep before the shark siezed him by the middle, and a number of us plainly taw him make 08 with his victim. We had a pretty fair night of it, and the weather held good for the following day. Then we had calms and squalls and head-winds, and I’ll give you a bit of my diary to wind up the story: ‘ Fourth Day—One of the children died and we had to hold the mother to prevent her jumping overboard. “Fifth Day—Dead calm and no progress. Many sharks about. “Sixth Day—One of the women—a Mrs. Wilkins—died, and another woman and child are sick. “Seventh Day—Head winds. Sick are no better. “Eighth Day—Woman and child dead. Calm. “Ninth Day—Young man jumped overboard last night without any of us knowing it. Another woman sick. “Fourteenth Day—Manning, two women and myself are alone left alive. We must be near the coast. “Seventh Day—The four of us were picked up by a schooner thirty miles off the coast. Plenty of food and water left.” That’s my story, sir; and I want to say that every death that took place in my boat was more the result of terror at the situation than for any substantial reason. We bad an abundant of drink and food, plenty of room after three dr four had gone, and one died after another simply because hope gave out and there was a collapse.

Religion Then and Now. Indianapolis Journal. The devil doesn’t cut as much of a figure in the pulpit nowadays as he did in the time of our fathers. When spoken of at all it is in a general way as a figurative manner of representing evil; the personal devil is a being almost unknown to the modern church-goer. With fire and brimstone and hoofs and horns practically eliminated from the present system of the theology, it is difficult to understand the influence the pictured horrors of the hereafter had upon the people of a past generation. Some realization of the imaginative miseries to which they were subjected may; however, be gathered from a perusal of the sermons of that eccentric preacher, Lorenzo Dow. One choice extract will be sufficient at this time: “f he lake of fire, originally prepared for the devil and his angels, into which the wicked will be cast, as their final doom, which is the second death, and burns with fire and brimstone, is dreadful to contemplate. A bar of iron heated, when touched with brimstone, will run down like melted led. Supposing a person to be confined and yet not consumed —how awful is the thought! * * • In eternity, where years shall cease to roll, how will time be then described? Suppose a damned ghost should inquire of Beelzebub the time. Beelzebub replies ‘Eternity?’ After a period equal to 10,000 years multiplied by the number of sands, the waves, tne drops, and then the twigs and spires of grass, and doubled over 10,000 times, and multiplied again; still the reply would be eternity! Without pleasure, and without slumber, and without end!”

This out-does alt modern evangelistic preaching. Jones f the cowboy preacher and all others of their class are tame beside him. It is related that when he delivered this serm on, Dow found it necessary to stand with his back against the door to prevent the escape of the frightened and no one will deny that the hearers had cause for alarm. No wonder Dow counted his converts by the thousand. Some Texas Feet. John H. Harris, of Brownsville, feels footbound in a No. 14 shoe. The understandings of Eli Gains, ? of Trio Town, are each fourteen inches long. A Dallas darky, weighing but 120 pounds, wears a No. 15 shoe, and is proud of it. The infant son of William Tell, of Weatherford, is just learning to walk, and toddles about in a No. 6 shoe. The feet of Maude Calisher, of Stephenville, are so large and heavy that she connot walk. She wears a No. 19 shoe. Fannie. Clark, of Coleman, stepped upon her partner's foot while dancing, and damaged, it so that two of the toes had to be amputated.