Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 February 1909 — LAST OF THE SLAVERS. [ARTICLE]

LAST OF THE SLAVERS.

I was first mate of the Mary Goodwin of Philadelphia when the strangest thing in all my seafaring life happened. We were on the banks of Newfoundland, the home of the fog " ■ V king, and the mist had come down on «S thicker than I had ever seen it. It lasted so long without lifting that the captain lost all traces of reckoning. We were off Halifaxx, Cape Race or Cape Breton, we didn’t know which. Finally h© concluded to drop an anchor and wait. There was a considerable swell rolling beneath us. but of course no wind. That wtrald have blown away the fog. One night the watch heard the sound of a distant bell. For an hour it tolled faintly, then very slowly became more distinct. It was evidently coming toward us. It must be drifting, for there was no wind to «f steam. At last the bell tolled disflll sails, and we could hear no sound mally within a cable’s length of us. We began to be anxious and rang our own bell to let the stranger know that we were in her course. There was little chance of her crew being able to turn her. for there was no wind, but they might anchor. She was coming so slowly as not to hurt as much from fouling except for the waves. If we should be rolled to'gether in the trough of the sea or one should be let down on the other, there might be a terrible crash. Our signal excited no reply, exeept the tolling of the bell, which continued constantly. Fearing those on the approaching vessel had not heard us, we fired a gun. But this elicited nothing. Presently we could hear the bell tolling right beside ue and 'now and then black would appear not twenty feet from us. hover there for a few minutes, then disappear. Once It came near enough for as to distinguish the side of a ship. We were on a terrible strain for awhile, fearing that we would clash with the stranger; then we caught a glimpse of her stern under our bowsprit. She had evidently passed us. At eight bells the next morning the tog lifted. There was no sign of land, but on our starboard Quarter was a barkentine without sails, her foremast gone, rolling with the waves. A wind sprang up', and raising sail, we made toward her. When we came near her the captain sent a boat’s crew to investigate. We found a derelict that had evidently been floating a long while. The only thing aboard that had ever had life in it was the body of a woman, and we had to stave In the door of the captain’s cabin to find that. It was lying in a berth, and, notwithstanding the many tossings the vessel had received, it had not rolled out.. We looked on the log book for the last entry. It was dated .18 months •gone, November 10, 1854. We read the entry and went back further for an explanation. No part of the log made mention of anything unusual transpiring aboard. Nevertheless we traced wßat must" have been" something of* the story. A bundle of: love letters from a woman to the captain the last dated not long before the log began, told us that he and his wife must have made voyage a wedding trip. The last observation showed latitude 23 degrees 15 minutes north, longitude 18.20 east, or about 300 miles south of the Canary islands and oft the coast of Africa. The ship’s boats were gone, which led us to believe that everyone on board except the woman had left the vessel find made for the land. The period, 1854, was when the elavers were running the last cargoes of negroes from the African eoast to th£ United States. In the fore eastle we found a scrap of paper on which was written. “The old man won’t consent; do the job.” We interpreted this to mean that the men wished to force the captain to take the crew ashore to secure a cargo of •laves. He declined, and they were to kill him. All this accounts for the captain's wife being locked in his cabin. The port anchor was gone. This indicated that the ship was .at anchor when the crew left her. We found no evidence to show whether the captain was killed or went with • them. The cable had evidently parted and was blown offshore. Probably while the men were ashore after negroes a storm came up and broke the cable. Likely the captain was killed en the ship, and during the melee his wife went to the cabin and locked herself in. Possibly she may have lain on the berth, faint from fright, and died there. And so it was that this woman’s kter floated no one knew where. Likely it drifted southwestward eventually turning northward, possibly to the northern end of the Atlantic ocean, Ihen caught winds or currents which bore It south again to where we found It. The rope to the bell rotted away, and the waves tolled with it a requiem for this bride whose happiness waa so short lived. Bat it was destined to float no finger. Such a derelict so near the lae of Atlantic steamers between Europe and America was a menace to life. Fortunately we had on board plenty of combustables to destroy her, and after giving the body of the Mfe a sea burial we placed a large quantity of gunpowder in the hold, fixed a slow match, then, getting into our boats, pulled away, the bell still telling Its requiem. Presently a flame flflot up, the waters trembled, and the last of the slavers sank to the bob-totni-r—Alexander Ely. '