Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-12-06
A PROPHETIC POEM.
sy THERON naows.

Out of the bosom OF Zuyder Zee,
Fresh on her quarter the wind all right
Blew till evening, and half that mighty
Into the turbulent German Ocean,
Sehernan, the MASTER steered away,
And carried, never to bring again,
A regiment OF three hundred men,
And wives and children. whose brave dc
votion
Followed for good or evil then
In the old ship Vryheid.
Ho for the sweet East Indian Isles.
And 1 tyow every heart on board was light
For the crew were bold, and the youn
marines
Thought of their homes mid tropic scene.
And the fraus that night to their kinder
leens
Sang dream-songs In the cabin, whiles
Of Haarlem, seventy English miles.
Sped the old shib vryheid.
Brief, blest sleep-and bitterest waking!
Foreland beacon was lust in sight,
And over Brabant the day was breaking
When the storm csme-came madIy, ah
me!
And shook every mast and rib and knee
OF the old ship Vryheid.
Down with the top-galIants, Shiverin,
bare,
The vessel fed like child in fright;
But faster now. in the morning gleam,
Followed abaft and drove beam
On. the old ship Vryheid.
By Ramsgate, shooting the Kentish shore
BY Castle Deal and the Goodwin Sands.
OFF and on with struggling hands
The l.owland sailors weathered and wore
And. hour by hour, at his painful post,
Grim, and haggard, and splashed with
brine,
Schermen the master scanned the coast;
He needs pilot-but makes no sign,
Past the morning. and past the neon;
But the storm has gathered a fiercer might
And the doom II threatens will strike too
Crash! went the nlainmast-shroud and
stay
By the board, and carried i've men away
Rose with the wind in awful tune.
All, women must wall, and children shrek
The hold is filling! A leak!-a leak!
With groaning pumps, and stanchions'
strain,
And tempest's rear, and terror's crying,
With white Distress flag wildly flying,
Faded again the terrible day,
Fell once more the terrible night;
And hard by the entering of Hythe Bay,
at every anchor chain.
Rocked the old ship Vryheid.
Tugging, rocked at the harbor-gate,
While horribly, through the stormy gloom
The Numbering sea-swell over her pressed;
And ever, out OF her laboring breast,
The groaning pumps and the stanchions'
ereak,
And the shouted call and quIvering shrek.
And the signal-cannon' 'sdismal boom,
Rose and fell on the midnight bleak.
she rocked at the harbor-gate,
I'LL the wind that a mOmentseemedt to rest,
Suddenly veered TO the sou'-sou' west.
And blew hurricane up the Strait
hnr VT chit ~.
chain
And swung her head TO the sea again.
Who shall help but her hull must drift,
And the waves her living freight o'erwhelm
When thus on their foaming horns they lift
And toss her forward SO deadly swift,
And her decks and quarters wrench and
rift,
By pump and tiller and rope and yard,
Tan barely bring her to mind her helm.
Who shall help when her captain, blind
TO his own wo-signal flying fore.
And deaf to the watch-cry thrilled from
shore,
Filings his one life-hope to the wind,
And hazards the last that a tnadman NAV
Rather than yield his own small way.
Forward he stood in the awfal dawn,
And out of the rack of the plunglng surge
He saw the Prov of a boat emerge,
And voice rang up as the boat leaped
Work back work back, with might and
To Castle Deal or to Hythe agsinw
But sainly the Dover pilot yarns;
Chaplain Scherman his counsel scorns.
1I'li ride till the gale wears out" thinks
And save my pocket an English fee."
He grasped the wheel with a stubborn
clench,
A md, blindly laying his course ahead,
Desperate, down the wind he sped,
Till the boldeSt sailor began TO blench
TO hear the surf of the Buckinge tread.
Oh for the sleight of a native hand
TO shun the perils that line the landi
voice, like a sudden bell,
Hailed, and pilOt-bOat once more
Hove in sight on the fearful swell,
Sent from Deal by the Commodore.
But vainly again the warning spoke,
nd the loud ''lay to" of the pilots gun
Passed astern in puff of smoke,
And never word from the ship, save one
Pay no attention! let her run"
So on, on, on, all crippled and blind,
Drove the poor transport down the wind
With her struggling crew and faintiDg
freight E @
A nd the Dutch commander who sealed her
Friendly counsel. monitors cry,
Women and children weeping nigh,
Ruin shadowing fore and aft
Every span of the falling craft,
And the pounding seas that round her
And ring her death on the rocky shore
Not all the signals of grand disaster
Broke the strange madness of the master.
stolid, sufficient, obstinate.
He swears the tempest will soon abate,
And still in offered anchorage sees
Only the Downs and Dover fees,
DR. he breads the Casle roadstead rate,
A md, penny wise, on bargain stands
With the lives of hundreds on his hands,
Until too late, too late, too late!
For hurling blast swept over the deck
The storm on the channel has reached Its
height)
And leveled the mizzen mast and the fore,
md left the vessel a floating wreck
That never will mind her rudder more.
Then. helpless amid the breakers white,
With her crew, and the soldiers brave and
tall,
And the shrieking babes and mothers, all
Drove the old ship Vryheid!
Full head she struck on the crunching piles,
A nd the mingled cry of prayer and fright
That followed the shock that fatal night
Knelled up like the cry of q single sOul,
And eastward, westw. rd, for many miles,
Scattered ashore, lay the wrecks In sight,
And sidder, under their watery pail
The dead lay heaped at the gloomy Wall
For of all that company. brave and bright,
Four hundred and three-score and ten,
From the Zuyder Zee, but eighteen men
Survived the old ship Nryheid.
Toll. We mourners of Amsterdam, @
Toll the bells for matron and knight,
Gallant sailor, and children gay:
And chant the mass, and the funeral
And weep for fallen beauty and might
But not for the Captain whose willful way
sank them ali under Dymchurch Wall
In the old ship yryheid. -....f4 SOD
shame on the official pride, too nice
To hear Q warning or, take adyipei
shame, that ever. ON land or snip,
The touohy stiffness of conscious rank
should chafe to listen and scorp to thank
A clever hint from humble lip!
1--WE must right her, sir" the carpenter
said
The ports are dipping, the ship will keelr'
As he mended the Royal George just laid
At Spithead down. "by parliament heel"
And the starched lieutenant with sruffdis-
Ordered him back to his work again:
Nor needed him, till too late to save
Nine hundred souls from an ocean grave.
Better lie to, and wait for day.
Said the uuartermaster off Sambro Light,
Where the proud Atlantic steamed astTay,
Al nd the sailing officer rloaked his Plight,
And suubbed the truth in lordly way
Captain and mate my work may touch,
Rut Won are neither, and know too much" !"
And the ship, with her sleeping lives be-
Sank at Marr Islands rock of wo.
you're nearing land, or the sea weed lies (;
The Gulf Stream near 10 the South must
Said safior-psssenger. old and wise,
To the mate of the CITY o. Washington,
Feeling her way seven dismal days 80
The vessel had groped through log and hase,
But swore 10 her bearings, nevertheless;
And they jeered the wise old man. "Oho,
Keep your advice till better you know"
isThose yveeds-I,ord pity Won sir! They