The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1881-05-05
Stranger than Fiction.

Stranger than Fiction.
\ STARTLING STORY OF ALLEGED INHUMANITY
AT SEA. CHARGE AGAINST A CAPTAIN. WHAT
A ''SrOWAwAY' SAYS TRANSFERRED N THE IN
DIAN OCEAN
| Time and again romance has recorded the per
Verslty OF the stereotyped sea captain who, ignor
| Ing the sufterings of his fellow beings has left
them to shift for themselves on uDprovisloned
RATS or boats on the open sea- but seldom in real
life is Bow a-days enacted the story which couple
OF castaways brought with them aboarishp 10
this port Their narrative is not colored By the
hand OF the fiction writer, nor is the cruel inditfer
ence OF the captain to his mems lives exaggerated
or wrought up by any tricks Of the romancist but
presented as it is in all its bald details it serves to
| show that the old tales of the packet ships and
| slayers OF other days have their parallels in the
experience Of those employed in the prosalc mer-
| chant service of to-day. The commander in Ques-
ton is Capt Carney, of the American ship Charles
Dennis, OF Bath, Me. The vessel left this port in
| November 1879. laden with oil, bound for
| loBohama, Japan The ship reached her destina-
tion with six men missing, including the second
mate, but the details of their disappearance were
| never made known, and perhaps never would be
had not some of the men deserted the vessel and
| gained this port through other means Among
these was sailor named John Lawson, who ar
| rived here last Wednesday. on the ship Ophelia
now lying at the Empire stores, BROOKLYN laden
with sugar from Yokohama lie details the story
Of his voyage with Captain Carney, as follows -
y MAN OVERHEARD.
1t was about the 18th of November 1879 that
we left New Y ork city bound for Japan | had
never sailed III the Charles Dennis before but was
acquainted with some OF the crew and they in
duced me to ioin them. Our voyage was a pleas.
ami one, and i had begun TO congratulate myself
on having secured good berth, when an incident
| occurred that changed matters considerably We
| had been 100 days out and were in the Southern
Indian Ocean, between the Cape Of Good Hope and
| Australia when light squall blew up and one
| OF the men, John Thomas who was irving at the
time TO lead main gallant brace, was swept over
| board by wave and IN a twlnkling was some dis
tance behind All hands ere aware of the occur
renee in a few minutes, and the mate who was
standing near Just then picked up a life buoy and
threw II out into the sea in the direction of the
man overheard We could see him plainly strug
gllng in the water about twenty tdthOmS in our
wake and hastily mounted a mast and stood up
IN the rigging so as to follow his movements in
the water The captain then came deck and
BUSTED about with his spy glass. but made no at
tempt to slacken the vessels speed or to save the
drowning man, 1t was fully an hour and a half
atterWard, and only when there was grUmbliur
among some Of the sailors that the captain order
ed a boat TO be lowered and manned: but with
such sea and so long time clapslng the effort OF
rescue was deemed truitess by all OF The cap
tam however insisted and would not listen to the
protest OF his mate who only saw death staring
them in the face should they make the attempt at
rescue The mate sald that it was now too late
NO man. no matter how good swimmer he might
be, could have lasted above water for 50 long
time in the strong sea, but despite his reasoning
the cantain ordered hin, togatbar 1r,t fr or III q
crew 10 uet into the small boat and raw, harl- ~
the point where the man had been washed over
board. We had drftad many miles from, tbo snot
whore Thomas was last Saan and II saa,no r,l;o,,
Ions ID search for man yho fnnst cnrtainl- hao
been then in thn hottorn of tbe soa h,t +horo ,o
no usn rving to d;ssnada the ra,tai1, fran his ny
| nose He seemed to feel that ha had not arrtod
ricbt in the tirst naco and nndaavornd ~ sfon ~,
ayLihiton of ZOO I,nsoss i, ~. -. .t - ~
crew after The nissng saiior There
ON the shin who did NOT fnnl that thn ,,,o, " ~
wore shont IN la.ro ,harn would no1,or rt,rn It
of course they conId saw nothinr in tho fra Of the
cantains orders Atar thn small hoo+ v,as Io,rorJ
info thn Sna and tha man tc,l- th.ir ro,,,,o+ ~
nositiors The cantan rnt tbo ha,r nm , S+T
10 tbp sonthvard f,r a sbort ti,,n a1 tfo, h,. ~
'Ni' MAN pfAhklI"N OF SHlFMAlEN.
The small boat then pulled away to wlndward.
until those on board the ship could see but htt ID.
speck on the water riding over the waves which
grew fainter and fainter until finally they lost
| sight of the small craft altogether. There was
| ull on board the ship MANY of the bows gathered
| together in groups and speculated on the actions
l of the captain Some condemned the proceedings
while others did not seem to care. but orlv grum-
| bed at the delay caused by the mishap Thus we
| continued for nearly two hours the captain re-
manning in his cabin, when suddenly he came on
If t
d, anu o"ttep on l"nus ] g. = Ms Jus gre" n
a. " "a rln"ii uesti ~ piish uI Us "ileI
us as we stood all together He spoke of our posi-
~ ovs "a. i''.uuo "po't - uesietS SOUTH an"
~ ~ Ieslecs eaSl' anV HealI! t"o 'houSanu
NJ .ilt? noln .Le nenltsl PolH' VI Ianu According
~ ~ nis iuason.hs tncIe Nas no vs. .n waiting Tor
~ , ietui @ VI my Ilp"' Tlio " iIS 'ie perhaps
n"S' pei anu ne "ui oo"'t" LIN lu5' oI Pi4
was thus he spoke to- the men. otf,ernr ar,ninents
which they, of course, afraid to protest
against; besides there many heartless rascals
aboard who had even less pity for their late com
panions and urged the propriety Of gong ahead.
Many Of the men had worked hard and were pretty
tired by this time and only too glad to be relieved
from the labor OF beating about the ocean for the
missing men. They had eaten nothing tor some
time and their evening meal being in readiness
FASTENED the majority to the conclusion that a re
turn the best thing that could be done un-
der the circumstances The captain then gave the
order to square away the yards and in little
while the vessel proceeded on her course to the