The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-10-29 00:00:00

;rITE STOrRI3IIIDGE 013SERVE1i.

,

THE LOSS OF THE "CYPRIAN.."

A. subscription is being raised at Liverpool for the
widow Cf the late Captain StraChan, master Of .the
st'eamship Cppricin, which was wrecked reoently in
Carnarvon Bay. It will be reccillected that CeTtaiti
Strachan gaVe his life-buoy to n boy 3Lowaway on the
ship. The lad v.7-e.,3 saved, but the captain was
drownzd. The captain was about 30 years of age, had
been married two .Years and has left a son about
12 months old. Mr. F. R. Leyland, one of the
owners of the Cypiiart, heads the subscription with

A Liverpool Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph states :
The heroic conduct of the unfortunate captain of
the Cyprian in taking off his lifebelt at the height of
the storm and giving it to a young stowaway who was
on board the ill fated vessel, continues to excite
deep interest. The latter's name is John Klahn, and
he resided in Liverpool with his parents, who are
people in comfortable circumstances. He is an ex-
ceedingly intelligent and observant lad, and until
within the last few twain was employed at
the office of Mr. Johnson, the agent for the Pullman
railway cars at the Central Station, Liverpool. Since
leaving this office he has always expressed a strong
desire to go to sea, rather against the wishes of his
parents, although he has an older brother, who has
been at sea as an apprentice for some years. One
morning he was sent on an errand, and as he did not
return by night his mother became very uneasy, and
her anxiety was increased when the missing boy did
not put in an appearance the following day. Diligent
inquiries were made to ascertain his whereabouts, but
it was not until two or three days had passed that the
friends of the boy obtained a clue which led them to
suppose he had stowed himself on board the Cyprian.
According to his own account, the boy John Klahn,
after leaving home, made his way to the Huskisson
Branch Dock, where the Cyprian was lying, and after
waiting about for some time he watched his oppor-
tunity and slipped an board when he could do
so without attracting attention, and hid himself
under a shelf in the forecastle, as far as he could judge
about two hours before the ship left the dock. Some
hours afterwards he was discovered by several of the
; sailors, but they did not appear to take much notice of
his presence. He subsequently went on deck,
and the captain passing him looked at him rather in-
quiringly, but he did not say anything at the time, as
he probably thought he was one of the other boys.
Klahn remained in the forecastle that night, some of
the sailors supplying him with food. He was on the
deck nearly the whole of the morning of next day, but
was not noticed, the officers and sailors having sufficient
to do in managing the ship. A few hours before the
vessel struck the captain passed him, and asked him
who he was, and be told him. The attention of the
captain was then drawn away by an attempt to
launch the lifeboat by the sailors, bat the endeavour
proved futile, as the boat was stove in as it was being
lowered. Klahn remained on deck, and some time
after this incident occurred the scene which has
brought the name of Captain Strachan somewhat
prominently before the public during the past few days.
The captain, seeing the young stowaway standing
beside him without a life-belt, said, looking in the
direction of the rocks, "Take that, my boy- I can
swim that far." The third engineer, J. C. Black,
then fastened the belt round Klahn's waist, and
told him to follow him. They went to the stern of
the boat and then lowered themselves into the water,
followed by Klahn. The boy, who is a good swimmer,
was swept underneath by a huge wave, and he says
that he thought at the time that the ship had stranded
on him. In a few seconds he came to the surface of
the water, and, glancing round, he could see the ship
bear right over, which he thinks was the time she
struck the rocks. He then swam vigorously for the
rock, which he reached, as far as he can judge, in
about ten minutes. He describes Captain Strachan
as being very cool and collected during the storm, even
when the lifeboat was stove in.

The Daily Telegraph has published several letters from
subscribers sending contributions to the fund being raised
for the widow of Captain Strachan—amongst others, the fol-
lowing :
- - -

Sir,—l have been laid up for some weeks, and when
I read of that noble act of Strachan, the master of the
Cyprian, in divesting himself of belt and life preserver
to save the life of the stowaway, I said to myself,
"Here is a real hero; one who could face death—not
at the cannon's mouth, where, in all probability, there
would be some living witness surviving to hand down
the act to posterity, but where there was scarcely a
chance of the stowaway ever reaching the shore alive."
But it was ordained otherwise, and the stowaway did
live to tell the story and record the act of heroism.
Fine words do not butter parsnips. Therefore I say,
"Honour to the dead is all very well, but aid to the
living is better." I send you my subscription—a
modest £2—and sign myself, A. T. T. P.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN ON IRELAND.
_ =
Mi. 'Chamberlain, speaking at Liverpool on Tuesday night
on the occasion of the annual meeting of the National
Liberal Federation, dwelt at length on the condition of
Ireland. Be asserted that the objects of the Land League,
as first avowed, were praiseworthy but they developed and
changed since the Land Act had passed, the new policy
being the independence of Ireland, which Mt. Chamberlain
said that, Itadital as he was, he could not countenance. The
necessity tor coercion, though odlotts to him, elated, but he
was only cOntent to regard it its a temporary etpedient. lie
thus concinded his speech :

But I should be false to all the traditions of Liberal-
ism, I should be untrue to all that I hold to be noblest
and best, if I did not say that this necessity imposed
upon us is a hateful one, which I would have desired
to have been spared. It is not a fact for insolent
exultation. We have, I hope, definitely got rid of and
discarded Jingoism in our foreign relations; we will not
import it into our domestic policy. Coercion is a blot
on our civilization, It is a condemnation of our past
government of Ireland. Is it nct humiliating to us as
Englishmen that within a few hours of where I am
speaking such a meeting as this would be prevented by
the police, that the chosen representatives of the Irish
people are imprisoned, that now in the 19th century,
after 300 years of the advantages of British rule' it
takes 50,000 soldiers and police in order to compel the
Irish people to accept it. (Cheers.) We who have
sympathized with other nationalities—with Poland,
with Hungary, with Italy, and with Greece—we find
ourselves obliged to employ some of the devices of
' despotism in order to prevent anarchy. If the neces-
sity exists, it must be recognised • but it is an odious
one, and one which I am only content to regard as a
temporary expedient—as affording an opportunity and
a breathing space during which milder agencies may
perform their healing work. (Cheers.) Well, there
are two classes who are interested in the action of the
Government. The larger by far of those includes
all who believe that law and order are priceless
benefits to civilization, and that they must be
maintained. The other consists of those who are in-
terested in the maintenance of particular law, and
who are willing that the whole resources of the State
should be brought into play whenever its execution is
in danger, and in order to prevent its reform. (Hear,
hear.) I submit to you that the course which the Go-
vernment has pursued has amply vindicated the first
of those interests. The second we do not undertake to
defend, and, hence the clamorous outcry of those who
think that coercion has come too late because it
did not come soon enough to prevent the passing
of the Irish Land Act. (Hear,) The future is
still uncertain, hut I think it is not without hope.
(Hear, hear.) Our contest is not—l hope it never
may be—with the Irish people. Ido not conceal from
myself that the probability is that many of them sym-
pathize with the works for which their leaders had
been imprisoned; but there is a long distance between
sympathy and putting sympathy into actual practice,
and the prevalence of intimidation shows sympathy
alone was not a sufficient motive to induce the ma-
jority of the Irish tenants to sacrifice the great ad-
vantages which were offered to them in order to follow
the dangerous counsels which some of their leaders
have tendered. They will see the Ulster tenants crowd-
ing into the Land Courts and protecting their property;
thpy will have the advice recently given them by Arch-
bistop Croke, whose sympathy with the earlier stages of
this agitation gives weight to its present statements;
and I do not believe they will be found in the long run
to reject the greatest boon which has ever been offered
to a people, in order to engage in hopeless contests, in
which all the forces of law and order will be against
them. It is said that we have not earned the grati-
tude of the Irish people. I suppose that this question
,must pass away, and the Land Act must work a slow
revolution in the condition of the Irish people before
they will be able to recognize the sacrifice and the
effort of those who have striven to benefit them, and
to do something to retrieve the injustice and oppres-
sion of the past. Not for this alone will we despair.
We may take to heart the words of an American poet,
written in the darkest days of his country's history,
and addressed to these who were struggling for
reforms which then seemed hopeless of accomplish-
ment :

"Yet do thy work; it shall succeed;