Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-03-14
From the New York Herald of the 7th.1
PeriIs of the Deep.

FefRIs Oh the Dceps
FREEZING TO DEATH IN MID OCEAN
NARROWING SUFFERING OF A SHIP
WRECKED CREw-A COLLISION OFF CAPE
MAY AND DAsTARDLY FLIGHT OF THE
CCINJCRED yEssEL-PERIsHING FROM
HUNGER AND CoLD-TIMELY AND GAL
LIANT RESCUE BY THE STEAMSHIP AL
BEMARLE.
The recent heavy gales will doubtless
cause many serious disasters along the
coast, and the public may be prepared
for tales of suffering, owing to the pierre
ing cold which prevails. 1t is some con-
ISOLATION, however, to think that the
ocean is still traversed by some noble
seamen. who, when chance or PrOviden-
tial Intervention throws a rescue in their
way, no risk or pain, or hardship, will
deter them from at least attempting
to save their suffering brethren, whom
Ill luck or accident may have left to per-
ish in the storm. And yet there are
others, happily a small minority, who,
destitute of all feeling and wrapped up
in their own selfishness, care little what
becomes of the drowning mariner, and
would scarcely go a point out of their
course to respond to the cries for help
r or succor, A case in point is furnishedby
the sad catastrophe which befell the
schooner Henry Conrad. The sufferings
Of her shipwrecked crew are described
as narrowing in the extreme, and had it
not been for the
HUMANE, PROMPT AND MANLY ACTION
of Captain G. NJ. Walker, commander
of the steamship Albemarle of the old
Dominion line, they must have been lost.
1t appears that the Albemarle left Nor
folk on Monday evening at 4 p. m. -Four
hours later it commenced to blow gale
from the northwest and continued in
violence until the next day. About one
p. m. on Tuesday, Capt. Walker, when
off Cape May, sighted a three masted
schooner, sunk, bearing north by west.
Without hesitation the captain at once
ran down towards the schooner, and, to
his surprise found a small boat made
fast to one of the masts containing six
men and one woman, all of whom were
stark and stiff, while the little boat itself
was constantly shipping water and toss
ing about at the mercy of the waves
Not in the course of his long and varied
experience has Captain Walker beheld
such heart-rending spectacle. The OC-
cupants of the boat, who were almost
doubled up, were rapidly sinking into
STATE OF UNCoNsCIoUsNEss,
and it was evident that if not already
gone to their last home their hours were
numbered. As the Albemarle drew
nearer it was perceived that every per-
son in the boat had a coating of ice on
over half a foot thick, and already be-
numbed and frost bitten, they were for
a time deaf to all interrogatories At
length Captain Walker came up quite
close to the disabled schooner, and, with
stcntorian voice, hailed them to cut
adrift. As if aroused from deep slum-
Der, and many of them were already
doing prior to dissolution, CLEAN of
hope frightened for a moment the pros
poets of the dying crew, and simulta-
ncOus effort was made to obey the kind
command. But their powers were gone
aid in the effort to relieve themselves
they fell back III the boat in a scnScleSs
condition. One man, however, who sat
in the bow, reused to a last desperate
attempt to save his life, seized an axe
with his frOst-bitten hands, and, by one
vigorous stroke, cut the rope that 50
long enchanted them to death. Thus
freed, the little boat, with its perishing
occupants, dropped alongside the ALDER
marie, and they were taken through the
port on the lee side. They presented a
most
HELPLESS AND FoELORN SPECTACLE,
"and it was thoughtthat very few of them
would survive the terrible ordeal through
which they had passed. But the usual
remedies, including stimulants and the
rubbing of ice on the hands and feet Of
the sufferers were quickly applied, and
with the great and unremitting attention
bestowed upon them by Captain Walker
and the purscr of the Albemarlc, the
poor patients gradually recovered con-
seriousness. And then came the story Of
the wreck The vessel lying in seven
and half fathoms of water, was the
three masted schooner Henry Conrad,
Captain Parker bound from Baltimore
to New York laden with coal. At s
o'clock, when in the midst of the storm
she was run into by an unknown schOOn-
er, and in an hour and a half afterwards
went down. Deserted by the instrument
o of their destruction-for after the col
HsiOn the unknown schooner made off,
her captain, Indifferent to the calamity
he had Caused--the crew of the Henry
Conrad were compelled to take to the
small boat, but unable to row in the
storm, attached her to one of the masts
TO await the dawn Of day. The gale did
not subside. and, as it was freezing bit
tSrly, the suffering of the crew COM
menGed near midnight, and for sixteen
long hours they sat starving and perish
ing from the cold Their last hour had
come when rescued by Captain Walker,
- and it is needless to state that the time
fy and generous action of that humane
commander will win the admiration of
the community, while the cowardly
fight of the craven who did the damage
will doubtless bear its own reward. 1t
is hoped that the name Of the unknown
schooner will be discovered and the CEN
sure placed where it is due Captain
Walker, by the way, formerly command
ed the steamship Fulton, and effected
the clever capture Of the blockade run
ner Margaret and Jessie. The Alder
lnarle arrived here yesterday, and land
ed the frost-bitten crew The woman
was the daughtcr-in-lawO of Captain Par
ker, who owned $4,000 in the Conrad.
the total value of which was $50, 900,
uninsured Most Of the crew were for
waTded to Connecticut, where they re-
side. Captain Walker states that the
sunken schooner lies north by west eight
miles off Cape May, in seven and a half
fathoms Of water, right in the track of
vessels going mp and down the coast
Humorous Headings.
Bad t. borrow trouble.
The dark ages saus-agcs.
A soft blow a gentle breeze.