Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-11-22
VOYAGING IN COFFINs.
The Grim Catamaran In Which
Tim O'NeiIl Made His rs
cape.


The originality OF prisoners in de
vising means OF getting out OF Jail had
a fresh but rather grim illustration in
the case Of Timothy 0'Neill, a youth
of eighteen, who escaped from Harris
Island recently in a sort of a cata-
maran made out of a pair of pine
collins braced together. Tim 0'Neill
was a wild boy who hung around the
low rum shops in Cherry street and
frequently got drunk. Last August
he Was arrested for being both drunk
and disorderly, and was sent to Black
wells Island for three months. Soon
after he was transferred with a gang
Of convicts to Harris Island to do
laboring and other work Potter's
field is situated on Harris Island, and
piles Of red painted pine cofins are a
common sight to see on the steamboat
wharf. When a load of this kind of
freight is brought to the island it had
sometimes to be placed under a
shed if the weather was unfavOrable,
or il the graves are not ready to re-
ceiye the consignment. In tie dead
house were also several empty collins.
O'Neill had been working in the
vicinity of the dead house, and the
wild. eccentric idea entered his head
that if be could only get hold Of one
or two of these empty collins and
launch them on the waters of the
sound, freedom would be his. No.
body knows, and the shrewd and
reticent Tim will never be likely to
let anybody know how he managed to
dodge the keepers of the lookup on
the island at supper time, and secrete
himself about the twilight hour with
in the dead fouso But so he did.
He promptly went to work when the
coast was entirely clear. He provided
himself with a dozen nails aud several
sticks Of wood and Immediately pro
ceeded to improvise a catamarin out
of the Two collins. This was the work
of fifteen minutes. Tim was a strong.
lusty youth, and he thought nothing
Of whipping up the double barrelIed
coffin and carrying it over his back
down to the water. Ii was now the
dusky hour of evening and a strong
ebb tide was running down the sound
There was no time to be lost, for the
guard boat would SCOT be round from
the other hide of the island. Throwing
himself transversely across the floating
coffin, he started boldly out and
trusted to the current to carry him
toward New York He had not been
aAOat very long when the guard boat
hove 10 sight, and the mar in the
stern declared he saw some floating OBJ
ject in the distance and ordered the
oarsman to pull in the direction be in
dictated. At that moment a schooner
came along with tapping sails, but
moving with the current. She ran
close up to Tim and his catamaran
and shut of from the guard boat all
sight OF the object they had noticed.
Tim was taken aboard and brought
safely to the city. He soon went to
his old haunts on Cherry street, got
drunk and was again sent back to the
island. he was transferred to Harris
island, and was Immediately recog-
nized as an escaped convict. Yester
day he was brought down to the city
by Keeper McCaffrey for the purpose
of having him punished, under the
now code, for the %offense OF escaping
lie was taken before j Justice Kilbret6.
who was too busily occupied to look
into the case, and referred 1t to the
District Attorney. That official de-
oided that he should be taken back
by the keeper to Hart's island and
kept until the expiration of his sen
tence, aud then brought down and
dealt with for the other ofense Of
making his escape from prison.