New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1866-10-22
launch of the G'ustayus ". Brooke s. life
boat,
rrom the Freemep's Journal Dnoltn, Sept 20, 1861

s bN0Is
From the Freemaus Journal Dublin Sept 20, 1861
The Gustavus v. Brooke lfeboat was on Thurs
day launched at the North Wall, from the yard OF
the Messrs. Walpoo, Webb y Bewley The pres
ence of the bereaved widow of u. V. Brooke,
added additional interest to the ceremony. Mrs.
Brooke, who was attired in deep mourning, was
not, however, known TO many persons present,
Some ladies and gentlemen were introduced to-
her. Some of the members of the ltebOat COM
mttee in London were present. Amongst the
other persons present, We're: Mrs. John Harris
John Francis Mcguire, NJ p; Thos. Edmunson,
hon. secretary City of Dublin Lifeboat Fund;
Samuel B. Taylor, secretary Irish Auxiliary Royal
National Lifeboat Institution; Messrs. Fottrell,
Gaskn, Conroy, CRANKY, etc. The Messrs, Wal
pool Webb & Bewley were also present. The
GustaVus Vaughan Brooke lifeboat is thirty-two
feet long and seven feet six inches in BREADTH and
possesses all the properties appeFtaining to the
lifeboats Of the National Lfeboat Institution, viz:
selfrighting, selfeeotion Of water, great lateral
stability, etc. Her cost has been betrayed by the
friends and admirers of the lamented G. v,
Brooke, who was drowned in January last in the
Bay of Biseay. She will be stationed at the Pool
beg Lighthouse, where suitable house has been
built tor her reception. -...
| The ladies and gentlemen present having taken
up position near the lifeboat, which was placed
| on her carriage,
| Mr.. 7. w. Arson, of London, said that he had to
| inform them that John Francis Mcguire, Esq, NJ.
p. at the express wish and desire of the subscribe
| 6fS, had klndiy consented TO present the DOab III
the name of the donors of the lifeboat association.
| Mr.. John Francis Mcguire, NJ. P, then came for
ward, amid loud applause, and aaid: The pro-
ceedngs Of thisaday are intended to honor the
memory OF great artist, and to commemorate
| in the NEST grateful and appropriate manner the
| heroic closing of a distinguished career. (Hear.)
| 1t is now many years since first saw Gustavus
Brooke, and the impression then formed of his
marvellous gifts was confirmed by the subsequent
verdict of every race by whom the English Ian
| guage is spoken, and by whom the genius of
| Shakespeare is held in reverence. Grandly endowed
by nature, his intellectual faculties likewise were
| Of the highest order. Cast in the finest mould of
/ manly beauty, he walked the stage with grace
| and dignity unriYalled.
/ noble head. carried proudly; a splendid eye,
| terrible in its fash, or tender in its glance q
4 Yoice-Then I first heard its tones-rich, full.
| deep, and exquisitely modulated-an organ of
such wondroas range and compass that it ex-
\ pressed every varied emotion and passion of the
soul with the fidelity Of nature. And Brooke was
as natural as he was versatile. Since the days of
the elder kean there have been artists the equal,
! for aught know the superlors of Brooke; but in
spontaneity, impulse, power, naturalness, not one
has approached him. (Hear, hear.) Art unas-
sisted by nature is still but art. You may admire
| you may applaud its efforts but you are never
carried away by it. One is, as it were, instinct
lively GU the watch against being surprised by art
for in the mere artist there is an articaly which
never can deceive the unerring criticism Of the
| senses but Brooke was q man of genius who
possessed that faculty, so essential to q really
| great actor, Of thoroughly identifying himself with
the character he portrayed. taear, hear.) In
that lay his power and his success. Others might
! have had as fine conception Of the part and as
keen an appreciation of its most delicate shades ;
4 but he felt as he acted, and was for the time
/ the parsonage he represented.
1 Since the days of Young or Kemble there has
i been no such Hamlet as his: nor since old Kean
electrified his audiences has Othello or Sir Giles
0verreach had SO powerful, so terrible delneator
| as the man whose loss the stage deplores. (Hear
| hear.) Vivid is my memory at this moment of his
| Hamlet, though witnessed full twenty years since
| or MORE. His voice was then in all its freshness
| and of surprising beauty. His carriage was up
4 held with grace and dignity. His bearing was that
of Shakspeare's prince and gentleman; and SO
natural was the actor that the character respect
ing which whole libraries Of speculation and con
treyersy have been written, seemed to me so lucid
! in simplicity and directness as to mock at the
i mysterious significance impaired toit by common
! tatofs. lie who awed you by his kingly majesty
i Or heroic dignity, or sent shudder through your
/ veins as the duped 0thello savagely cries for
'blood, or the frenzied Lear calls down the ven
1 geance Of Heaven on his unnatural daughters, the
same actor convulsed You with laughter as O'Cal
1 laghan on His Last Leg, or as Pierce O'Hara, the
Galway Attorney (Applause.)
1 In the delineati0n Of Irish character he was in
| imitable bnt in the widest fun or the broadcast
farce never offended the susceptibiities of irish
men, for he was not only an Irishman himself but
q gentleman. Born in this historic city, he never
forgot his native land; nor did he, as some Of his
eounrymen in various walks of life have done,
ever seek to impress on strangers the notion that
he was an Englishman. (Hear, hear.) To Gus
tavus Brooke belongs the honor of having, if not
literally founded, at least successfully developed
the drama in Australia, in which greatest and
| most prosperous of our colonies he won the ad.
! miration and affection of oil who witnessed his
nlatchless performances, or appreciated his worth
as man. GustaVus Brooke was not an angel of
virtue. Like other men, he had his defects; but
he had q large soul, generous nature, and an
/ = Il
his sympathy or compassion. What charities he
| assisted, what good works he helped TO promote
what misery he soothed, what distress he ayerted
or relieved, cannot stop to say; the record has
been preserved above.
And now comes the last awful act in his life's
eyentful drama. No mimic scene, no artificial
stage; no dressing for part here; but fitting
scene indeed for the terrible tragedy about to be
enacted On q raging sea, beneath frowning
sky, across which the tempest-torn clouds are
madly lying, you behold mighty ship tossing
wildly on the furious waves, Writhng and groan.
ing as living thing that is wrestling in its last
gasping agony. No smoke from the huge funnel
now; the invading sea has quenehed the fires for
ever. With shattered masts, and sails torn to
ribbons, the London is desperately surging on,
every mad plunge hurting her nearer to the fney-
liable catastrophe. Clustered on her deck are
hundreds of human beings, drenched by the
waves, and shiyering in the winter blast, but
soothed by the voice of prayer, and sustained by
the christian hope in Gods mercy. Conspicuous
Ior MS calness ana serenity IS ono VINO, now that
all human effort is unayaiIing, awaits the dread
moment with quiet heroism. Bareheaded and
barefooted, thinly clad, in soaked trousers and
Crimean shirt, he hadzto work at the pumps while
a chance remained; but now that the waves
leaped with wilder frenzy, and the ship Is fast
preparing for her final plunge, he stands I'm.
abashed, but'awed and silent, in the presence of
death.
more furious blast of the tempest a mad
dened leap of 6he fierce, rayenous waves, and the
London, with its living freight, is lost to human
sight forever. May not one quoting his famous
author, from whose pages he drew his loftlest in.
spiration, say
" There was nothing In his life A='
~ That so became the man. "a E....
AS me leaving on'tfn
(Applause.) When the tidings of this terrible
disaster was read by the friends of the great
aetor-those who had known and loved the man
the idea Of commemoratlng his fame by suitable
memorial naturally suggested itself to their minds
And what memorial could be more touching in its
| suggestiveness or more useful in its nature than
this lifeboat which is to bear his name? The
shores of these islands are annually fringed with
wrecks, and the corpses Of mariners and emf.
grants are constantly dung upon their single, or
rock, or sand. Ships and men are shattered on
our naked promontories, and the despairing cry
of the drowning wretch is often heard amidst the
lull of the tempest by commissioning spectators
on the land, who are compelled to look on in help