The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-10-25
THE VIRGINIA Pilots AND THE SHIP

| WRECKED PASSENGERS OF THE
| QUAKER CITY.
! TO the Editors of the DAILY Erchanqe:
/ l am requested by the gentlemen interested tc
hand you the enclosed communication, and to re-
! quest its publication in your paper
know, personally, all the signers to the paper
and can youch for their respectablity, and for the
| correctness OF any statement they will make.
! may state, further, in their behalf that NUN.
| Der of the Virginia pilots-among them, some OF
| the present owners of the Hope-who took into
| port part Of the rescued passengers of the i'll
fated Central America, insisted on refundinp the
money they had been paid for their services, when
they found the passengers had been shipwrecked
and, when the parties served would not take the
money back, appropriated it to charitable objects
And may vet further add, that have long re.
presented the Pilots in the Legislature of Virginia
know them all, and that humaner class of citizens
is nowhere to be found.
Respectfully, your obd't servant,
Jos. SEGAR.
In your paper of the 18th instant a publication
appeared which does us, Virginia Pilots and own
ers OF the piotboat Hope, of Hampton, great injus
tice.
The publication we refer to purports to be the
narrative of lady passenger on board the bark
Dunbarton, (Capt. Chadbourne,) who, with near a
hundred others, had been taken from on board the
disabled steamer Quaker City, and the statement is
as follows
81 must not forget to tell you that the captain of
'the bark did all in his power to make us comfort
cable, and when we got to Hampton Roads he
asked the captain of the pilot-boat Hope, OF
Hampton, to take us rescued passengers up to
''Norfolk that same evening; but he demanded SIOO
'as the price Captain Chadbourne offered him
$3.50 but he said the Baltimore steamer would
charge us as much on Sunday morning. So We
''did not go, but remained all night. On Sunday
'morning the steamer Louisiana from Baltimore
"came alongside and took US all on board, gave us
"a good breakfast, and to the praise of the Captain
"and Purser, be it spoken, they declined any pay
"meut tha Of lie
position between the Captain of the Louisiana and
"that of the Hope, of II ampton.''
We do not desire to detract, in the slightest
from the well earned compliment paid to Captain
Russell, and the Purser of the Louisiana. They
like all the officers of the Bay Line from its gener-
Gus President, Mr.. Falls, down to its humblest EN-
ployee, have often such testimonials of the
pu6hc appreciation and acknowledgement, as they
VIII again when the occasion shall Offer But the
lnVldious discrimination made between ourselves
VINO were on board the pilot boat Hope and the
ocers OF the Louisiana, is most undeserved by US,
and requires at our hands instant explanation.
our lady correspondent is entirely mistaken in
her facts mised, doubtless by the unadvised state
ments OF others, or by misapprehension for sure
we are that no one of the gentler sex would know
lngly do injustice to class of citizens whose daily
bread is earned by constant wrestle with the storm
and ever perious effort to give security to life and
property at risk on the ocean.
In the first place, neither the bark Dunbarton nor
the pilot boat Hope, scas an Hampton Roads, when
the Hope was asked to take the passengers of the
bark to Norfolk. II acas outside the Capes-omt at
Sea-that the pilot boat was spoken by the bark
The Hope was just where duty required her to be.
cruising far beyond Hampton Roads-out upon the
ocean-in the track Of and looking out for, the in
commerce, or seeking, in the inland surroundings,
security from shipwreck
Now, if out at Sea, those on board the pilot boat
Hope had charged, or did charge, Sl0O to take the
passengers of the bark-65 in number-into Nor
20 m hat +bo oh
was an exorbitant or unreasonable one, and more
particularly when the Captain of the bark had con-
tracted to receive, and doubtless did receiye'
SlOOO, for taking the same passengers to the first
convenient port? And where was the consistency
in Captain Chadbourne's generosity in beating as
down to $50 for taking the passengers of his bark
from Sea to Norfolk, when he himself was to re-
ceive for nearly the same service, just twenty times
as much?
The statement of your Correspondent further is,
that the application was made to the Hope to take
the passengers of the bark, from Hampton Roads
up to Norfolk, the erening; as if the Hope and
the Dun6drton were alongside. in Hampton Roads,
at the same time, in other words arrived in Hamp-
ton Roads together.
, This is altogether mistake. After the Hope
had put pilot on board the Dunbarton she 1.-THE
Hope) continued on her cruise at sea, and the Dun
barton did not arrive at Old Point Comfort Hamp-
ton Roads, until 10 o'clock at night when she
was snugly anchored within hundred, yards
of the Hygeia Hotel, while the Hope in the dark
ness of night was out at sea. The proposition,
therefore, was never made to the Hope to take the
barks passengers 'Jrom Hampton Roads the same
erening to Norfolk" and of course, the charge of
extortion, or want of disposition to Accommodate
and besriend the distressed, does not hit at our
door.
Nor was there any pressing necessity for any
great haste in getting the passengers to Norfolk.
When anchored off Old Point wharf the passen-
gers were within stones throw of the Hygeia
hotel where the amplest accommodations and COM
forts could have been had-and some did 90 I'D to
the Hygeia and stay until the morning; or if for
purposes OF comfort to his passengers, it was so
necessary early to reach Norfolk, why did not Capt
Chadbourne 90 on, without anehoring, direct to
Norfolk? for the wind was fair and ample, and in
an hour or two his passengers might have been put
down in Norfolk, where, for his contract of 81 900
compensation, he was bound to deliver them, with
out the intervention of the pilot boat Hope or the
steamer Louisiana, or any other craft?
Besides, if Capt. Chadbourne's object was really
the comfort OF his passengers, and not to get clear
of his contract as soon as possible-throwing
others for Sl00 what he had charged 81 900 for
why did he wish to thrust his passengers from his
own spacious ship to pent-up, confined small
sized pilot boat into which not one half of their
number could have been, by possibility, iammed
Thus much for the facts of this case. But our
vindication is complete in ths-that when we said,
on the spur of the first inquiry, that we would
charge Sl00 to take the passengers to Norfolk are
did not knoV that they had had the misfortune to be
shipUrecked. Our boat spoken at sea for a pi-
lot, pilot was put on board in few minutes time;
and in a few minutes more the bark and the Hope
were apart, going in opposite directions; and in the
few minutes occupied in sending pilot aboard the
bark, we were not once apprised that the passen-
gers we were asked to take to Norfolk had been
rescued from disabled steamer. Had we known
this, our boat and best efforts would have been
at the service of the rescued, "without money an /
without price, without fee or reward beyond the
consciousness of having obeyed the call of human-
ty The pilots of Virginia never take advantage of
the shipwrecked
We have made this minute statement of facts to
put ourselves ri ght-to do ourselves and the class
to which we belong justice Our vocation is one of
toll and hardship-full of privation and peril-but
nevertheless our good name isas dear to us as it
can be to any other class, and that good is as
necessary in humble vocation as in any the
highest.
We repeat, we have no fault to find with the lad V
author OF the narrative to which except, because
we are satisfied, she was msled as to the facts And
we fear, and have reason to believe, that it was
Capt. ChadbOurne himself, who, in his pride to
monopolize the eclat of the occasion, did the mis-
leading; for, after his arrival in Norfolk he m ade
similar representations, and repeated them, until
he was warned that he would be held accountable
if he persisted in his misstatements.
EDMOND RUpD,
GEORGE YOUNG,
FRANK W. GUY,
w. t. CLARKE,
RICHARD BULLY,
Vnrr,