The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1872-10-03

NJ i@'ii1oh D@ty ttf.Ff}N, III II
issue Of September ., says: Noble as Is
the tale Of the Birkenhead, it find. its
parallel in the account Of the death Of Paul
Eison, English pilot, in charge Of the ship
Rothesay. On the Goth Of July, this YES
eel, which bad three days before cast off
the Calcutta tug and steamed safely ont
Of the horrible jungles and swamrs Of tine .
sunderbund-, was caught by cyclone. On .
tie goth Size lay wreck, all hope of saving
her long past. Then the pilot, Paul FL .
son, the one man who seems 70 have had /.
bis wits about him-collected few volun-
:eers, and rugged a raft. Thirteen only Of
the crew got on her; the rest were frantic
with terroT-some praying, others drunk,
others raying, others dashed iaextric; blv to
the sinking vessel. Elson was the last to
leave the ship; lcaping ,yerbcard, be swan
10 tie raft, cut the hawscr that held her.
and constituted himself by inherent right
her sole officer. Within an hour the doomed
vessel hcelcd, lurched heavily and went
down head first. Al that day and all
that night the raft drifled, heavy seas
breaking over her. owe were up to our
necks in water" says the man who tells
the tale, 'for she foated low" All that
night, nevertheless. Elson, who was a pow
erful swimmer, swan round and round the
raft, lashing her together, and strengthen
ing her as best he could. Ever and anon
the furious breakers washed a man of.
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 ut last it be
came apparent 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 handed.
he large raft foated away into the NIGHT.
EIson and three other men took to the
smaller; while on the other drifted away n
native boy, Paul Elson's servant, Of whom.
hitherto, in the midst Of all his terrible toll,
the brave pilot had never once lost sirht.
lie kept near him; he tended him as \
mother would tenl her child; he gave him
/ our last supply of drinkable water. The
vessel had sunk on the Doth Of July: 1t was
now the % Of August The raft was drift
/ ing under raging tropical sun, for three
days there had been no food, no water;
worse than this the fral support itself be-
gan to break up, and, swimming about in
heavy surf, Paul Eison became much
exhausted. The end of course could
not be far off. First one Of the men
was washed away and then another,
until EIson himself and the Scotchman
who tells the story were the sole survivors.
'Piot, said !, so the narrative runs
''we must fight it through'' oh Fra
ser answered he, a can't hold
out any longer.
Then a heavy sea
broke upon us and knocked him off. |
found it impossible to hang on, and was
forced to let him 60 And so the story
ends. The body of Pilot Elson, worn out
by his inceasant labors, floats away into
the deep, there to lie till the sea shall give
up It's dead. For hour after hour he had
laLoTed and toiled, wasting himself anG his
streng,b IN the effort to succor those whom
he had under Lis charge. A hundred times
over he forgot 10 think ofhimsclf; he broke
his 1rclt heart in an obstinate effort to save
net hims #, bat the others. \ Il night he
swami round the raft, tightening rope
here, weighing in spar there; when the
native boy was delirious he handel him the
last drop Of water, when hope grew desperate
lis chc.ry voice brought back fresh life
and strength to the dcsolatc; and at last,
when all his strength is gone, when those
stout limbs were cold and numbed and we'll
nigh dead: and fa;ntness, brought on by the
d'iuging salt spray and the dreadful blind
IN, SUM- has set Uneven then the brave
man dies as he ought to have dicd-en,.ing
nob'y. 81 told him, says Fraser. chat
il he couldn't hold OIL ! would lash him"
He then made some exclamation about his
poor wife and said: | will try to stand it,
but huge wave rearing its hundred
foaming crcsts against the skies, washed
Paul Eison oif-his body to the deep, his
soul to lis Cod"