Morning journal and courier., 1881-07-29
The Fate of Five Heroes.
Why the Ship Charles Dennis Deserted Five of Her Men in Mid-Ocean-The Captain and Chief Officers Account.
 

Why the Ship Charles Dennis Deserted Five Of Her Men in Mid-0cean-The Captain and Chief Officers Account. GFrom the New York Heraldl
 The ears of the public were shocked a few
 months ago by the details of an alleged deser-
 tion at sea, by the ship Charles Dennis, of five men who had gone out in small boat to | rescue fellow sailor who had been washed
 overheard AS first related it was story of incredible heartlessness on the part of the captain, James Carney, and was accompanied
 by assertions of his cruelty to others of his
 crew in Yokohama. The master of the bark Ophelia, one of whose men deserted from the Charles Dennis at Yokohama and was re- sponsible for the whole account, in part cor roborated the version. Two other masters
 emrhatically denied it. The Dennis arrived in this port late on Saturday night, and re- porter of the Herald was able yesterday to get the story from the accused captain him self and to corroborate what he said by the lips of the two mates who sailed with him. The ship is owned by MT. T. J. Southard. of Bowdoinham, Me-, and consigned to Messrs.
 J. E EIwell & Co.,, of No. 57 South street. this city. She registers 1,710 tons, and Las been regarded as staunch craft and good sailer Mir. Southard said to the reporter
 that he had thoroughly sifted the story of de-
 sertion, and thought it 8 cruel invention of the stowaway, John Lawson, who first told it. He said that Captain Carney was born in Bowdoinham, and that he knew all about | him and could vouch for his good character.
 'sThe readiest argument in his favor" Mir. Southard continued, "is that he needed every sailor he had on board"
 THE CHIEF OFFICERS ACCOUNT
 When the reporter boarded the ship at Brooklyn Carney chose to let the chief off, cer, Cyrus E. Eagerly, of Bangor, give the
 first narrative of what had happened. The | chief officer said: ''We left here on the 18th of November, 1879, with general car l 20 for Yokohama. There were sixteen sail ors, beside the captain, two mates, the car | penter, steward and cook We had rough | weather from here to the Equator, but came | of without any loss, and turned Cape Horn l to meet head winds and more bad weather. l On the 18th of February (the captain can tell
 you what latitude and longitude we were in) | at about seven o'clock in the morning we lost
 a sailor named Thomas Brand. We were
 running free at the time, about nine knots an | hour, and had just set the main topgallant sail ] when we shipped the sea that washed him ov- ! erboard. I threw the life buoy to within ten | feet of Brand, I should think, and gave the
 alarm promptly. The captain came up on
 deck with all hands and ordered the wheel hard up. We let go the halyards and the | ship wore round on her heel until in no more 1 than eight minutes after Brand went over we
 were h. aded toward the spot. Brand had l been on the starboard side of the half deck,
 and Iheard him give one cry after falling. The captain ordered the boat lowered immediate
 ly, and more than half the men pulled of
 their boots and coats, ready to go to the res cue.~s Not man was ordered into the boat. l As she put of, with five on board, the cap- 1 tain told them to pull in the direction where l the man was last seen. The boat had been
 of for about twenty or twenty-five minutes,
 when squan suddenly approached from the
 northwest, and the captain ordered us to sig nal the boat, which was then to the leeward I of us, to return It was perhaps half mile away then, and soon the snow squall covered
 them and we could hardly see ships | length"
 BEYOND ALL SIGNALS.
 t'When it cleared up, '' the first officer cen i tinued, i've could see nothing of the boat. i The squall might have lasted twenty five
 minutes. All day we looked for the boat, ] during frequent squalls which endangered