Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1872-06-06
THE HORRORS OF A BURNING SHIP.
In an editorial in the London Telegraph of
ApriI 22nd. occurs this statement:

April ZZnd, occurs this statement:
"a catastrophe, almost unparalleled in
horror-disclosing the gross crueties of the
Macao emigrant trade by one last and most
terrible demonstration happened in one Of
the China seas last May, and is recorded in a
Parliamentary report just published. A
vessel called the Don Juan set sail on the 4th
of that month from Macao, bound to Peru,
with six hundred and sxty-fve coolies on
board, who had been kidnapped and shipped
under the flag and with the authority of the
Portuguese Government. Once on board this
large multitude was placed literally in prison,
penned on the main deck and fastened down
by three iron gratings, which closed the
matches, ten coolies at time only being al
lowed to come on deck. .a
The ship sailed in fair weather from Macao
On the second day of the voyage, as declared
by Herker, an Austrian seaman, the Captain
selected twenty coolies and put them in irons
with much brutality, as an example to the
others. On the third day difficulty arose
about the food passed down to the emigrants
The interpreter got angry and struck those
who complained with his cane, whereupon the
wretched coolies made rush at their Euro.
pean jailors. The iron matches we're imme-
diately slammed back upon them, and, when
the poor creatures beat upon the beams and
planks to get air, muskets we're fired down into
the crowd.
1t then appears that in desperation, some
few of the coolies set fire to store room for
ward, hoping no doubt, to force the crew to
throw their prison open. The sailors tried to
pump water down upon the seat of the conha.
grafton, but the frenzed men below passed the
hose out of the port holes, so that pumping
became useless. Then the fire spread beyond
all control and volumes of thick smoke rolled
into the main deck-choking the mass of
coolies at either end, who had taken no part
in the previous proceedings. Red tongues of
fame and suffocating clouds filled the ship
below matches, while the miserable prisoners
beat at the iron gratings, tore at the fasten-
ings Of the deck, and even attempted to get
up to the air through the ventilators. The
port holes, however, were fastened, the dead
lights were too small to allow of mans body
passing, and the ventillators were barred, so
that there was no escape. In two hours time
the fire was "established on the main deck"
which means that scores of the Chinese had
already been roasted or smothered yet the
crew never took a single step toward saving
the lives Of the imprisoned wretches. They
merely lowered two or three boats on their own
account, and pushed off from the burning
vessel, leaving all that mass of human crea.
lures pent in floating hell of fear and agony.
The sea was calm; the matches might have
been opened at the last moment; yet the Don
Juan's captain and band showed of, while the
ship blazed and while the coolies perished in
side with frightful cries and screams. The
scoundrel master and crew saved their villain.
Gus lives; junk picked them up, and the
same witness who tells this says that when the
twenty Chinese in irons who were upon the
forecastle broke away their fetters and swan
toward thejunk, they were pushed offinto the
sea to drown. Meantime in their awful ter
ror, the survivors of the six hundred and fifty
FIVE below found some means of bursting the
fore-hatch. Scores were by this time killed by
the flames or the smoke; scores had been
trampled down in the frenzied rush for life to
the upper deck. About hundred in all at
last emerged from the Golgotha of anguish
and leaped at once into the sea. A few man
aged to get hold of spsrs and floating gear,
and hung upon these till fishing boats picked
them up next morning. The majority were
already mortally injured when they escaped,
or were drowned, or crushed by the falling
chains and spars of the ship. But at least
FIVE hundred were first scorched to death, or
choked and trampled dead before the Internal
prison-gate was forced by the breaking open
of the matches, which the captain and crew
had so shamefully left fast"