Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-11-07
The Story OF a HerO's Death.

NOBLE as is the tale of the Birkenhead,
it finds parallel in the account of the
death of Paul Elson, English pilot, in
charge of the ship Rothesay. On the
29th of July, this vessel, which had three
days before cast off the Calcutta tug and
steamed safely out of the horrible jungles
and swamps of the Sunderbunds, was
caught by a cyclone. On the Both she
lay a wreck, all hopes of saving her long
past. Then the pilot, Paul Elso, the one
man who seems to have had his wits
about him, collected a few volunteers,
and rigged raft. Thirteen only of the
crew got on her; the rest were frantic
with terror-some praying, others drunk,
others raving, others lashed inextricably
to the sinking vessel Elson was the last
to leave the ship; leaping overheard, he
swan TO the raft, cut the hawser that held
her, and constituted himself, by inherent
right, her sole officer Within an hour
the doomed vessel heeled, lurched heavi-
ly, and went down head first. All that
day and all that night the raft drifted,
heavy seas breaking over her. 1--WE were
up to our necks in water" says the man
who tells the tale, "for she fioated low"
All that night, nevertheless, Elson, who
was powerful swimmer, swan round
| and round the raft, lashiug her together,
Ever and anon the furious breakers wash
ed the man off. And then would the
brave pilot, who had not only the heart
but the strength of giant, strike out
toward him and carry the drowning
wretch back. But at last it became ap-
parent that the raft must be broken up,
and that second and smaller raft must
be constructed to relieve the other. This,
too, the pilot effected almost single hand
ed. The large raft fioated away into the
night; Elson and three other men took
to the smaller; while on the other drifted
away native boy, Paul Elson's servant,
of whom, hitherto, in the midst of all
his terrible toll the brave pilot had never
once lost sight. "He kept near him; he
tended him as a mother would tend her
child; he gave him our last supply of
drinkable water" The vessel had sunk
on the 29th of July; it was now the I'd of
August. The raft was drifting under a
raging tropical sun; for three days there
had been no food, no water; worse than
this, the frail support itself began to
break up, and, swimming about in the
heavy surf, Paul Elson became much ex-
hausted. The end, of course, could not
be far off. First one of the men was
washed away, then another, until Elson
himself and the Scotchman who tells the
story were the sole survivors. 'Pilot,"
said $50 the narrative runs-"we
must fight it through" "Oh, Fraserl"
answered he, II can't hold out any longer;
Then heavy sea broke upon us and
knocked him off; found it impossible to
hang on, and was forced to let him CO."
And so the story ends. The body of
Pilot Elson, worn out by his incesssant
labors, floats away into the great deep,
there to be until the sea shall give up its
dead. For hour after hour he had labor
ed and toiled, wasting himself and his
strength in the effort to succor those
whom he had under his charge. A hun
dred times over he forgot to think of him
self; he broke his great heart in an obstin-
ate effort to save not himself, bat the
others. All night he swan around the
raft, tightening rope here, wedglng in a
spar there; when the native boy was de-
lirious he handed him the last drop of
water; when hope grew desperate his
CHEEKY voice brought back fresh life and
strength to the desolate; and at last
when all his strength is gone, when those
stout limbs were cold and numb and we'll
nigh dead, and faintness, brought on by
the delul, ing salt spray and the dreadful
| binding sun, has set Uneven then the
brave man dies as he ought to have died
ending nobly. 81 told him." says
Fraser, "that if he couldn't hold on |
would lash him. He then made some ex-
clamation about his poor wife, and said, Il
will try to standit; but huge wave, rear
| ing its hundred foaming crests against
the skies, washes Paul Elson off-his
body to the deep, and his soul TO his
God, London Daily Telegraph.